Household appliances linked to breast cancer
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Household appliances linked to breast cancer
A study led by researchers in Israel suggests that exposure to household low-frequency electromagnetic fields (EMF) may increase risk of breast cancer and other mammary tumors.
The study reported in the May-June 2005 issue of In Vivo was based on 1290 clinical case-records of women aged 60 and older over a 26-year period who visited the Edith Wolfson Medical Center in Israel.
Participants were included in two groups, one group (group 1) of women with mammary tumors such as breast cancer followed up between 1978 and 1990 who rarely used EMF-generating appliances.
Another group of women (group 2) were followed between 1991 and 2003 who extensively used personal computers (more than 3 hours a day), cell phones, TV, air conditioners and other household electrical appliances that generate EMF.
Researchers examined reports on 200,527 biopsy and surgery samples and mammary tumors were found in 2824 women or 1.4 percent of the women in the study. Nearly half of the cases were elderly women.
The most common tumor was epithelial neoplasms. 585 elderly women in group 1 and 705 women in group 2 were diagnosed with mammary tumors.
In group 1, 19.5 percent of elderly women with mammary tumors were regularly exposed to EMF (mostly using computers) for more than 3 hours a day, compared to 51.1 percent in group 2.
The researchers found there was a significant effect of EMF on the formation of all epithelial mammary tumors in Group 2, particularly in those with invasive ductal carcinoma - breast cancer that is the most common form of cancer in elderly women.
Breast cancer is diagnosed in more than 175000 women in the United States and the disease kills about 50,000 annually, according to the National Cancer Institute.
David Liu
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