Table 4.15

Table 4.15 Case-control studies of female breast cancer and occupational studies of EMF

Reference,
country

Study population

Exposure
classification

Risk estimates

Comments

No.
of cases

RR
(95% CI)

(Loomis
et al.,
1994b);
24 US states

Women who died of breast cancer 1985-89 compared with those who died of other causes. 27 814 cases and 110 750 controls

15 electrical occupations other occupations	68	1.4 (1.0-1.8)
computer programmer	26	1.1 (0.70-1.7)
telephone operator	328	0.96 (0.84-1.1)
data entry keyer	77	0.75 (0.42-1.3)

MOR, adjusted for age, race, and class

(Cantor
et al.,
1995a);
24 US states

Women who died of breast cancer 1984-89 (same dataset used by (Loomis et al., 1994b) with an additional year of data). 29 397 white and 4112 black woman who dies from breast cancer

	white women
medium exposure	1746	1.1 (1.0-1.2)
high exposure	123	0.97 (0.8-1.2)
	black women
medium exposure	273	1.3 (1.1-1.5)
high exposure	20	1.2 (0.7-2.1)

MOR, adjusted for age and class(Cantor et al., 1995b) reported a significant association with radio frequency fields in the same population

(Coogan
et al.,
1996);
4 US states

All female workers in state registry records with breast cancer, 6888 cases and 9529 controls

All women
high exposure jobs	6851	1.4 (0.99-2.1)
test for trend	57	p = 0.11
Premenopausal women only
high exposure jobs	1424	2.0 (1.0-3.8)
test for trend	20	p = 0.49
Postmenopausal women only
high exposure jobs	5163	1.3 (0.82-2.2)
test for trend	35	p = 0.30

OR, adjusted for age, BMI, history of breast disease, age at menarche, parity, age at first birth, education, and alcohol consumption

Potential EMF exposure classified by an industrial hygienist for the most representative occupation collected at an interview

MOR, mortality odds ratio; CI, confidence interval; BMI, body mass index; OR, odds ratio