Subject:  EMF Health Study
Date:     Wed, 2 Jul 1997 225239 -0500 (CDT)
From:     CBSWALTHAM@aol.com
To:       Multiple recipients of list <emf-l@mail.llion.org>
--------------------------------------------------

The following is an article distributed by associated press.

By DANIEL Q. HANEY
.c The Associated Press

BOSTON (July 2) - The largest, most exacting study ever of electricity and
cancer found no solid evidence that living near high-voltage lines causes
childhood leukemia, as some have feared.

The researchers say their work is the strongest indication yet that this
much-discussed concern is groundless. Two other large studies, coming out
within the next year in Canada and England, could help settle the issue for
good.

Fears about exposure to magnetic fields from high-voltage electrical lines
were first raised in the late 1970s. Since then, several studies have looked
into the question, with mixed results. However, some have suggested that
exposure might triple the risk of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the most
common childhood cancer.

The latest study was designed to overcome many of the shortcomings raised by
critics of the earlier research.

''All in all, this study indicates that if there is an association between
magnetic fields and cancer, it is very weak. It makes one wonder how much
more money we want to throw at this subject, because basically we can't see
anything definite,'' said Dr. Lawrence Fischer, director of the Institute
for
Environmental Toxicology at Michigan State University.

Fischer headed an advisory committee for the $4.5 million study, which was
conducted by the National Cancer Institute and published in Thursday's issue
of the New England Journal of Medicine.

The study was based on 638 children under age 15 with acute lymphoblastic
leukemia. The researchers checked the youngsters' exposure to magnetic
fields
generated by nearby power lines and compared it with that of 620 healthy
children.

The researchers measured magnetic fields in all the houses where the
children
had lived for five years before the discovery of their cancer, as well as in
the homes where their mothers lived while pregnant.

''We found no evidence that magnetic field levels in the home increased the
risk for childhood leukemia,'' said Dr. Martha S. Linet, who directed the
study.

The only bit of data to the contrary was a 24 percent increase in leukemia
risk for children exposed to especially high magnetic fields. However, this
was not statistically meaningful and could have been a fluke, especially
since the risk did not rise steadily as power levels went up, as would be
expected if there truly was a link.

Even though acute lymphoblastic leukemia is the most common childhood
cancer,
it is still rare, striking about 1,600 youngsters in the United States
annually.

An accompanying editorial by Dr. Edward W. Campion, a deputy editor of the
journal, noted that several commissions and expert panels have also
concluded
there is no convincing evidence that power lines cause cancer.

''It is sad that hundreds of millions of dollars have gone into studies that
never had much promise of finding a way to prevent the tragedy of cancer in
children,'' he wrote.

Dr. David Savitz of the University of North Carolina, whose earlier research
supported a link between power lines and cancer, called the latest study
''important because of its size.'' But he added: ''This doesn't put it to
rest.''

Unlike many earlier studies, this one actually measured magnetic field
levels
inside homes rather than trying to estimate them by looking at power lines
outside. The measurements were made within two years of the children's
diagnoses with cancer, instead of many years later. It also involved about
four times more patients than the next-largest U.S. study.

Linet said two other large studies nearing completion - one at the British
Columbia Cancer Agency in Canada, the other at Oxford University - may
indeed
put the issue to rest if they too find no link between cancer and power
lines.

In the meantime, she said, ''it's very difficult for any study to
absolutely,
in black and white, prove the negative. Our study is no different. We cannot
absolutely rule out'' the possibility of a slight increase in risk, but ''we
feel that childhood leukemia is unlikely to be caused by residential
magnetic
field exposure.''

AP-NY-07-02-97 1701EDT

Copyright 1997 The Associated Press.


Archive provided courtesy of WaveGuide, http://www.wave-guide.org
Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.feb.se/EMF-L/EMF-L.html