Cellular-Telephone Use and Brain Tumors

Abstract

Hand-held cellular telephones were introduced to the U.S. market in 19841 but were not widely used until the mid-1990s. By early 2000, the number of subscribers to cellular-telephone services had grown to an estimated 92 million in the United States and 500 million worldwide.2,3 Some concern has arisen about adverse health effects, especially the possibility that the low-power microwave-frequency signal transmitted by the antennas on handsets might cause brain tumors or accelerate the growth of subclinical tumors.4?8 It is generally agreed that the heating of brain tissue by cellular telephones is negligible, and that any carcinogenic effect would . . .