POSTMARKETING SURVEILLANCE - WIRELESS TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH, LLC EPIDEMIOLOGY RISK-EVALUATION RESEARCH

Under the Wireless Technology Research, L.L.C. (WTR) program, epidemio logy studies are considered in the context of both postmarketing surve illance and as tools to test specific cause-effect hypotheses to suppl ement experimental studies. Neither experimental studies nor epidemiol ogical studies alone can provide a solid basis for assessing the poten tial public health impact of wireless communication technology. Theref ore, results of studies from each of these distinct disciplines must b e considered and interpreted in the context of the other, and answers regarding public health risk must follow from a weight-of-evidence eva luation. No previous epidemiology studies have been conducted on cellu lar telephone users. Therefore, a series of epidemiology studies of ap propriate designs (e.g., cohort, case-control) can assess the potentia l health risks derived from exposures to radiofrequency radiation from cellular telephone usage. Different study designs are necessary to fu lly evaluate possible causal associations, with cohort studies allowin g for evaluation of a wide range of health outcomes, and case-control studies providing results concerning disease-specific hypotheses.