Subject:  EMF Bulletin (fwd)
Date:     Thu, 25 Jun 1998 182758 -0500 (CDT)
From:     "Roy L. Beavers" <rbeavers@llion.org>
To:       emfguru@hotmail.com
--------------------------------------------------



......Here is another news story on the results of the EMF RAPID
Working Group meeting in Minnesota, which Louis and I both attended....
You will be hearing MUCH more about this......

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Thu, 25 Jun 1998 17:35:12 -0500 (CDT)
From: Louis Slesin / Microwave News 
To: rbeavers@mail.llion.org
Subject: EMF Bulletin


______________________

...FYI...Louis

On Wednesday, July 24, 1998, a 28-member panel convened by the National
Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) decided that extremely
low frequency (ELF) electromagnetic fields (EMFs) should be regarded as
possible human carcinogens.

The final vote of the working group was 19 to 9 in favor of categorizing
ELF EMFs, such as those from power lines and electrical appliances, as
possible carcinogens. The vote followed 10 days of review and debate of the
scientific and medical literature.

The wording of the final conclusion of the international panel was:

"Given these caveats, a majority of the working group concluded that the
listing of ELF EMF as a possible carcinogen is a conservative,
public-health decision based on limited evidence for an increased
occurrence of childhood leukemia and an increased occurrence of chronic
lymphocytic leukemia in occupational settings. For these particular
cancers, the results of in vivo, in vitro, and mechanistic studies do not
confirm or refute the finding of the epidemiological studies."

The panel's decision was largely based on the results of residential and
occupational epidemiological studies. There was less support from animal
(in vivo) and cellular (in vitro) experiments.

On Tuesday, the panel voted on the evidence limited to childhood leukemia,
and decided by a vote of 22 to 4 (with 2 abstentions) that EMFs are
possible carcinogens for children exposed to EMFs at home.

Meeting in a suburb of Minneapolis, the panel completed a
several-hundred-page document that covers the biological, physical and
engineering aspects of EMFs. NIEHS will release the report in mid-July. It
will be distributed to interested parties at no cost. The public will then
be invited to offer their opinions at a series of meetings across the U.S.

There was also consensus that EMF research should continue. Specifically,
the panel found that:

"The overall body of evidence, however, has laid a foundation for
furthering our understanding of the biological effects, mechanisms, and
exposure circumstances that may be related to the possible carcinogenicity
and other adverse human health effects of exposure to ELF EMF."

and that:

"Because of the extreme complexity of the electromagnetic environment, the
review of the epidemiologic studies and other biological literature does
not allow a precise determination of the specific ELF EMF critical exposure
conditions associated with the disease endpoints studied."

"This lays the agenda for future research," said Dr. Michael Gallo of the
University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey's Robert Wood Johnson
Medical School in Piscataway, the chair of the NIEHS panel, at the close of
the meeting.

Microwave News will feature detailed coverage of the NIEHS report and the
Minneapolis meeting in its July/August issue, which will be published in
mid-August.


Sincerely,

Louis Slesin
Editor, Microwave News


Please note that I was a voting member of the 28-member panel. I was
appointed as a member of the National EMF Advisory Committee.



-------------------Louis Slesin, PhD -------------------

Microwave News
A Report on Non-Ionizing Radiation
Phone: 212-517-2800;   Fax: 212-734-0316
E-mail: ,  Internet: 
Mail:  PO Box 1799, Grand Central Station
New York, NY 10163, U.S.A.





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