# Personal radio use and risk of cancers among police officers in Great Britain: Results from the airwave health monitoring study

## TL;DR

A study of 48,457 police officers in Great Britain found no increased cancer risk from using personal radios over 11 years.

## Contribution

The study uses objective call duration data combined with self-reports to assess cancer risk from personal radio use among police officers.

## Key findings

- No association was found between personal radio use and overall cancer risk.
- Head, neck, and CNS cancer risk was also not significantly increased by radio use.
- Doubling call duration via personal radio did not increase cancer risk.

## Abstract

Exposure to radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF‐EMF) from mobile phones and other wireless devices has been classified as possibly carcinogenic to humans. With data from 48,457 police officers and staff enrolled in the Airwave Health Monitoring Study, we investigated associations between personal radio use and the risk of developing cancer using Cox proportional hazard regressions. Personal radio use and duration of use were derived by combining objective data on call duration provided by the Home Office and participants' self‐reported data via gradient boosting methods. Across a median follow‐up time of 11 years, there were 1502 incident cancer cases of which 146 were cancers of the head, neck and central nervous system (CNS). There was no association between personal radio use, all cancers (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.96, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.79, 1.15) and head, neck, and CNS cancers (HR = 0.74, 95% CI: 0.39, 1.38). Doubling minutes of call duration via personal radio use was not associated with increased hazard of developing all cancers (HR = 1.00, 95% CI: 0.96, 1.04) or head, neck and CNS cancers (HR = 1.09, 95% CI: 0.97, 1.22). Results were similar when considering exposure to RF‐EMF via mobile phone use as well as when restricting the analyses to police officers only.

What's new?

Terrestrial trunked radio (TETRA) is the standard digital communication system used by police and other emergency services in Great Britain. During active use, TETRA emits radiofrequency electromagnetic fields, which are potentially carcinogenic in humans. Here, using data on objective call duration, the authors examined cancer risk from personal radio use among police forces across Great Britain. No significant association was detected between radio use, call duration, and cancer risk.