Telefonia celular e potenciais riscos à saúde

Abstract

The increase in the use of mobile devices and their relationship with possible harmful effects on health has become evident in the literature since these may be related to cancer and other outcomes, such as insomnia. Thus, the study objectives, presented in two articles, are to deal with the investigation of radio base station locations as a risk factor for the occurrence of cancer and the harmful effects of the use of cell phones as a possible risk factor for insomnia. The study used two design types for each proposed objective: a) a case-control study and b) a systematic review study. The Case-Control design carried out the study in an oncology hospital reference in the South of Minas Gerais area and macro-region, from November 2021 to February 2022, and collected the oncological and clinical patients’ medical records from patients who had already completed the treatment. A total of 310 individuals participated in the study, of which 81 had a cancer outcome, and 229 were controls. For each cancer patient (case), 2 to 4 patients with other outcomes (controls) were selected, matched by age, sex, and region of origin. Homes and telephone transmission towers were geospatially distributed. The patients’ addresses were collected from the medical records and the tower locations from the telecommunications and connectivity portal, Conexis Brasil Digital. Patients’ house distances from the nearest tower were considered as independent variables, as were habits, alcohol consumption, gender, age, the presence or not of cancer and previous pathologies. The analysis evidenced that age and smoking habits were associated with the outcome, (OR: 1,08; p<0,001) and (OR: 1,87; p=0,078), respectively, but there was no significant statistical difference between the assessed groups and the distances from the towers (OD=1). For the Systematic Review design, the PECOS strategy was used (population: adults; exposure: use of cell phones; comparison: individuals without cell phones; outcome: insomnia; type of studies: observational). The active search was carried out between January and February 2021, in the Pubmed, Science Direct, Scopus and Web of Science databases. Additionally, the Google Scholar database was used to search for gray literature. The study was written according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA). For the design of Systematic Review and Meta-analysis, the search resulted in 2,128 articles found with partial data, of which 32 were selected for a full reading. According to the defined inclusion criteria, 18 articles were included in the analysis. An association between cell phone use and sleep disorders was reported in sixteen studies, and the severity of the sleep disorder was directly related to the time of use of the device. It concludes that the investigated mobile device influences the quality of sleep. However, it was found that there was no relationship between the distance between the cell towers and the research subjects' residence location and the cancer outcome.