[Difficultés essentielles dans l'Interprétation des preuves épidémiologiques en faveur d'une association entre utilisation du téléphone mobile et tumeur du cerveau]
Du fait de la forte proximité d'un téléphone mobile avec la tête au cours d'un appel, des inquiétudes se sont exprimées quant à la capacité des ondes radiofréquences émises par le téléphone d'induire des effets sur la santé et, tout particulièrement, d'augmenter les risques de cancers du cerveau. Bien que l'épidémiologie permette d'établir des preuves décisives de l'association entre une exposition et une maladie, des problèmes fondamentaux se posent si l'exposition est courte au regard de la durée de « l'histoire naturelle » de la maladie. Pour les cancers du cerveau, les temps de latence sont de l'ordre de la décade, ce qui a amené à considérer l'impact de l'exposition sur une tumeur déjà existante. Nous allons voir que les mesures du risque comme les « odds ratios » ou les risques relatifs ne peuvent pas, dans ces circonstances, être interprétées comme des indicateurs de l'incidence d'un effet à long terme sur la population exposée. De plus, les questions de métrique appropriée de l'exposition et de choix des hypothèses ne sont pas résolues. Nous allons montrer que la réponse à ces questions nécessite la connaissance du mécanisme d'action par lequel l'exposition augmente le risque de la maladie.
Due to the close proximity of a mobile phone to the head when placing a call, concerns have been raised that exposure from microwaves during mobile phone use may exert adverse health effects and, in particular, may increase the risk of brain tumours. In response to these concerns epidemiological studies have been conducted, most applying the case-control design. While epidemiology can provide decisive evidence for an association between an exposure and a disease fundamental problems arise if exposure is short compared to the natural history of the disease. For brain tumours latencies of decades have been implicated making special considerations about potential effects of exposures necessary that commence during an already growing tumour. It is shown that measures of disease risk like odds ratios and relative risks can under such circumstances not be interpreted as indicators of a long term effect on incidences in the exposed population. Besides this problem, the issues of a suitable exposure metric and the selection of endpoints are unresolved. It is shown that the solution of these problems affords knowledge about the mechanism of action by which exposure increases the risk of manifest disease.
Mot clés : Téléphone mobile, Épidémiologie, Cancers du cerveau, Latence d'une tumeur
@article{CRPHYS_2010__11_9-10_556_0,
author = {Michael Kundi},
title = {Essential problems in the interpretation of epidemiologic evidence for an association between mobile phone use and brain tumours},
journal = {Comptes Rendus. Physique},
pages = {556--563},
publisher = {Elsevier},
volume = {11},
number = {9-10},
year = {2010},
doi = {10.1016/j.crhy.2011.01.014},
language = {en},
}
TY - JOUR AU - Michael Kundi TI - Essential problems in the interpretation of epidemiologic evidence for an association between mobile phone use and brain tumours JO - Comptes Rendus. Physique PY - 2010 SP - 556 EP - 563 VL - 11 IS - 9-10 PB - Elsevier DO - 10.1016/j.crhy.2011.01.014 LA - en ID - CRPHYS_2010__11_9-10_556_0 ER -
%0 Journal Article %A Michael Kundi %T Essential problems in the interpretation of epidemiologic evidence for an association between mobile phone use and brain tumours %J Comptes Rendus. Physique %D 2010 %P 556-563 %V 11 %N 9-10 %I Elsevier %R 10.1016/j.crhy.2011.01.014 %G en %F CRPHYS_2010__11_9-10_556_0
Michael Kundi. Essential problems in the interpretation of epidemiologic evidence for an association between mobile phone use and brain tumours. Comptes Rendus. Physique, Volume 11 (2010) no. 9-10, pp. 556-563. doi : 10.1016/j.crhy.2011.01.014. https://comptes-rendus.academie-sciences.fr/physique/articles/10.1016/j.crhy.2011.01.014/
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