Household electromagnetic fields and breast cancer in elderly women epidem.

The relationship between the rate of household low frequency electromagnetic fields and incidence of mammary tumors was studied in 1290 clinical case records of female patients aged 60 and more over a period of 26 years.

The patients were divided into collective 1 under observation from 1978 to 1990 and collective 2 from 1991 and 2003. Collective 2 is characterized by much more extensive use of personal computers (more than 3 hours a day), mobile telephones, television sets, air conditioners and other household electrical appliances generating electromagnetic fields than collective 1. No detailed information about exposure and exposure assessment were given.

200,527 biopsy and surgery samples were analyzed. Mammary tumors were observed in 2824 women (1.4 %), of which 1290 cases (45.6 %) were found in elderly women. Most of the tumors (97.2 %) were epithelial neoplasms. Mammary tumors were found in 585 elderly women in collective 1 and 705 women in collective 2. The case records of these patients showed that 114 elderly women (19.5 %) in collective 1 and 360 (51.1 %) in collective 2 were regularly exposed to electromagnetic fields (mostly from personal computers) for at least 3 hours a day.
There was a statistically significant influence of low-frequency electromagnetic fields on the formation of mammary tumors in elderly women of group 2.