Abstract

Background: The relationship between the exposure rates to ousehold EMFs and incidences of mammary tumors has been studied in women based on the materials of the Edith Wolfson Medical Center, Israel.Material/Methods: 200,527 biopsy and surgery samples from a period of 26 years were analyzed. The material was divided into two groups: Group 1 included patients with breast tumors from 1978 to 1990 and Group 2 between 1991 and 2003.Results: Breast tumors were found in 2824 women (1.4%). The highest number of tumors was seen in women aged 60 to 69 years. There were 1613 (57.1%) cases in Group 1 and 1211 (42.9%) cases in Group 2. The most frequent malignant cases were invasive ductal carcinomas (1473 of total 2824 cases). These were found in 777 women (52.7%) of Group 1 and 696 women (47.2%) of Group 2. The case records of these patients show that 181 (23.2%) women in Group 1 and 327 (46.9%) in Group 2 were regularly exposed to EMFs (mostly of personal computers) for at least 3 h a day. Despite the signifi cant differences in the number of patients exposed to EMFs for 3 h/day in both groups (x[sup]2[/sup]=29.7 and p

Keywords: Breast Neoplasms - etiology, Electromagnetic Fields - adverse effects, Aged, 80 and over, Biopsy, Needle, Breast Neoplasms - pathology, Electromagnetic Fields - adverse effects