CANCER MORBIDITY IN SUBJECTS OCCUPATIONALLY EXPOSED TO HIGH-FREQUENCY(RADIOFREQUENCY AND MICROWAVE) ELECTROMAGNETIC-RADIATION

Cancer morbidity was registered in the whole population of military ca reer personnel in Poland during a period of 15 years (1971-1985). Subj ects exposed occupationally to radiofrequencies (RF) and microwaves (M W) were selected from the population on the basis of their service rec ords and documented exposures at service posts. The population size va ried slightly from year to year with a mean count of about 128 000 per sons each year; each year about 3700 of them (2.98%) were considered a s occupationally exposed to RF/MW. All subjects (exposed and non-expos ed to RF/MW) were divided into age groups (20-29, 30-39, 40-49 and 50- 59). All newly registered cases of cancer were divided into 12 types b ased on localisation of the malignancy; for neoplasms of the haemopoie tic system and lymphatic organs an additional analysis based on diagno sis was performed. Morbidity rates (per 100 000 subjects annually) wer e calculated for all of the above localisations and types of malignanc ies both for the whole population and for the age groups. The mean val ue of 15 annual rates during 1971-1985 represented the respective morb idity rate for the whole period. Morbidity rates in the non-exposed gr oups of personnel were used as 'expected' (E) rates for the exposed su bjects, while the real morbidity rates counted in the RF/MW-exposed pe rsonnel served as 'observed' (O) rates. This allowed the calculation o f the observed/expected ratio (OER) representing the odds ratio for th e exposed groups. The cancer morbidity rate for RF/MW-exposed personne l for all age groups (20-59 years) reached 119.1 per 100 000 annually (57.6 in non-exposed) with an OER of 2.07, significant at P < 0.05. Th e difference between observed and expected values results from higher morbidity rates due to neoplasms of the alimentary tract (OER = 3.19-3 .24), brain tumours (OER = 1.91) and malignancies of the haemopoietic system and lymphatic organs (OER = 6.31). Among malignancies of the ha emopoietic/lymphatic systems, the largest differences in morbidity rat es between exposed and non-exposed personnel were found for chronic my elocytic leukaemia (OER = 13.9), acute myeloblastic leukaemia (OER = 8 .62) and non-Hodgkin lymphomas (OER = 5.82).