BACKGROUND: As the use of electronic devices such as mobile phones, tablets, and computers continues to rise globally, concerns have been raised about their potential impact on human health. Exposure to high energy visible (HEV) blue light, emitted from digital screens, particularly the so-called artificial light at night (ALAN), has been associated with adverse health effects, ranging from disruption of circadian rhythms to cancer. Breast cancer incidence rates are also increasing worldwide. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed at finding a correlation between breast cancer and exposure to blue light from mobile phone. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In this retrospective matched case-control study, we aimed to investigate whether exposure to blue light from mobile phone screens is associated with an increased risk of female breast cancer. We interviewed 301 breast cancer patients (cases) and 294 controls using a standard questionnaire and performed multivariate analysis, chi-square, and Fisher's exact tests for data analysis. RESULTS: Although heavy users in the case group of our study had a statistically significant higher mean 10-year cumulative exposure to digital screens compared to the control group (7089±14985 vs 4052±12515 hours, respectively, P=0.038), our study did not find a strong relationship between exposure to HEV and development of breast cancer. CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that heavy exposure to HEV blue light emitted from mobile phone screens at night might constitute a risk factor for promoting the development of breast cancer, but further large-scale cohort studies are warranted.

Breast Cancer Research Center Shiraz University of Medical Sciences Shiraz Iran

College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences University of Glascow Glasgow GB

Department of Medical Physics and Engineering School of Medicine Shiraz University of Medical Sciences Shiraz Iran

Department of Radiation Dosimetry Nuclear Physics Institute of the Czech Academy of Sciences Prague Czech Republic

Department of Radiation Oncology Edward Hines Jr Veterans Affairs Hospital Maywood Illinois USA

Department of Radiation Oncology Stritch School of Medicine Loyola University Chicago Maywood IL USA

Department of Radiation Physics Atominstitut Technische Universität Wien Vienna Austria

Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine Academic Medical Center University of Amsterdam Amsterdam The Netherlands

International EMF Project and Optical Radiation World Health Organization Pretoria South Africa

Ionizing and Non ionizing Radiation Protection Research Center Shiraz University of Medical Sciences Shiraz Iran

Noncommunicable Diseases Research Center Bam University of Medical Sciences Bam Iran

School of Life Sciences Manipal Academy of Higher Education Dubai International Academic City Dubai UA

School of Mathematics and Statistics University of New South Wales Sydney New South Wales Australia

School of Medicine Shiraz University of Medical Sciences Shiraz Iran

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