"Mixed Signals on Cell Phones and Cancer"
This is a commentary in the same issue of Epidemiology (2004 Nov;15(6):651-2), that has the report of the study, "Mobile Phone Use and the Risk of Acoustic Neuroma," from the Karolinska Institutet, Sweden . Briefly, this study suggests an association between analog cell phone use over ten years and an increased incidence of ipsilateral acoustic neuroma.
David Savitz of the University of North Carolina School of Public Health uses to this commentary to make several points about the methodology and implications of this retrospective case-control study.
The first is the difficulty of pursuing such an investigation where there isn't a strong prior probablity. He says, "When epidemiologists contend with a question driven by public health concerns, the foundation for a causal association is often fragmentary, and the likelihood of an effect is typically very small." This leads us to question whatever positive results are found, despite statistical significance. And, more importantly, Savitz points to the value of a negative result. If anything, "these results provide perhaps the strongest negative evidence for recent cell phone exposure and acoustic neuroma generated so far."
(more to come...)
4:44:59 PM 
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