Subject: ABC's cut at the NIEHS EMF report....
Date: Sat, 3 Oct 1998 062744 -0500 (CDT)
From: "Roy L. Beavers" <rbeavers@llion.org>
To: emfguru <rbeavers@llion.org>
--------------------------------------------------
Hi everybody:
The following news item (from ABC news) is perhaps the best, most
accurate and most truthful, so far, covering the results of the
Minneapolis meeting. I offer two (I think important) corrections
in the text...
Notice the appearance of a new name (to EMF-L group), Dr. Tony Sastre
of MidWest Research in Kansas City. I, too, have noted about him:
(1) that he is not afraid to speak up, (2) he usually gets it right --
without kowtowing to the industry/government intimidation, (3) his
knowledge and expertise on the subject is broad and deep. Before
coming to MidWest he was at Johns Hopkins.... Watch for more from him.
DO YOU KNOW OF OTHERS WHO SHOULD BE ON THIS LIST?????
Cheerio......
Roy Beavers (EMFguru)
rbeavers@llion.org..............http://www.feb.se/EMF-L/EMF-L.html
................................It is better to light a single candle ...
than to curse the darkness...............................................
EMFs May Cause Leukemia in Children, Utility Workers
.........New Cancer Concerns.........
____________________
Click on an appliance to see the maximum level of milligauss it
produces at various distances. A milligauss measures the strength of
EMFs; the Swedish government recommends that video display terminals
produce no more than 2.5 mG at 50 cm (about 20 inches). A typical
neighborhood 115,000-volt power line produces 6.5 mG at 50 feet.
____________________(ABCNEWS.com)
The panelists cautioned that their findings should not be met with
alarm.
Years of research have failed to demonstrate that EMFs cause cancer in
laboratory animals.
By Mark Worth
Special to ABCNEWS.com
For the first time since formal research into electromagnetic fields
began two generations ago, a government-commissioned panel of experts
has stated that EMFs, the invisible lines of force that surround all
electrical devices may cause cancer in humans.
At a June EMF conference in Brooklyn Park, Minn., 30 scientists
from the United States and Europe participating in a five-year study
commissioned by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
voted 20-6 that children who live near high-current power lines might
be more likely to develop childhood leukemia than those who don't.
The panel also voted 14-11 (with five abstentions) that utility
workers and others who work in or near electric power facilities may
run a higher risk of being stricken with a certain type of leukemia.
Among its more encouraging findings, the group said it is
unlikely that EMFs cause other health problems, such as breast cancer,
birth defects, miscarriages, depression, heart disease, Alzheimers
or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (Lou Gehrigs disease).
[Not quite accurate. In fact, the report's conclusion is that we don't
have enough evidence on these.... The research hasn't been done, in other
words......guru......]
No Cause for Alarm
Panelists cautioned that their findings should not be met with alarm.
"The data are not there to say that people should change their lives
one way or another," says Dr. Antonio Sastre of the Kansas City,
Mo.-based Midwest Research Institute, which sent two representatives to
the confab. "But I disagree with what some scientists are saying that
research into EMFs possible health effects is a waste of time. The
evidence has shown that serious questions remain."
Among those questions is the very mystery of precisely how or why
electromagnetic fields commonplace elements of our post-industrial
world might cause cancer in the first place.
Stumbling in the Dark
Relatively simple instruments can measure the electrical current
induced within the human body by an external magnetic field, just as
the current a magnet induces in a piece of iron can be measured. But
beyond that, experts aren't sure why electrical currents may
spawn physiological changes that could lead to cancer or other
disorders.
"We are stumbling in the dark," complains panel member Michael
Yost of the University of Washington in Seattle's School of Public
Health. "Epidemiological evidence has picked up certain associations
between EMF and cancer, but we are not pinning down the exact cause."
Among other techniques, Yost and other researchers use
body-shaped, gelatin-filled molds to replicate how EMF might
travel through humans. The results so far have been mixed.
Nevertheless, several theoretical explanations have been put
forth. One suggests that magnetic fields can prolong the life of
highly reactive chemical structures called free radicals in the body,
thus mutating cells, damaging DNA and generally wreaking havoc at the
cellular level. Unfortunately, this theory seems to hold water only
with very high-level EMFs, the kind generated by electric
shavers, hair dryers, power drills and other motorized appliances. EMF
levels generated by devices that many people spend long periods of
time with such as personal computers, cellular telephones,
cooking appliances and televisions are typically lower than the
internal electrical noise that occurs naturally in the body.
[I fail to see anything in the report that suggests the above conclusion.
In fact, my knowledge of what the key people who research that aspect
are saying, is that, "frequency" may be as important as "signal strength,"
though we simply don't know at this point. Further, the
suggestion (above) that the "internal electrical noise in
the body" is not being "overcome" by the external fields is
just not true..... Much of the problem may be with the idea that
internal noise needs to be "overcome" before bioeffects can
occur. There is a growing school of understanding on this that
some kind of "resonance" may be possible. See the next para.....guru....]
Another possibility is that electrical currents induced by an
external magnetic field can actually disrupt the body's
physiological circuitry by causing the ion channels
within a cell to open and close when they shouldn't. An EMF-induced
current, for instance, might be able to tell the pancreas to secrete
insulin when none is actually needed. Still, says Sastre, We have
absolutely no credible theory to rationalize, let alone explain, why
this could happen.
The effort to find clearer answers is complicated by the
likelihood that subtle changes, such as the frequency with which
EMF-generating facilities change their power output, may affect how a
body responds to the fields.
Good For You, Too
Unfortunately, for scientists and members of the public who worry
about electricity's potential downfalls, these questions are
likely to remain for years to come. The environmental health institute
panel relied on virtually the same data another government-sponsored
panel studied two years ago before reaching the opposite conclusion:
EMFs most likely don't cause leukemia in children or adults.
"We have a very annoying set of things that don't
jibe," Sastre acknowledges, "and unfortunately we are not
making much progress toward resolving the discrepancies."
As perplexing as those discrepancies are for people who make
their living researching EMFs, Sastre notes that "It's
terribly frustrating for laypeople."
Indeed, people who follow the EMF debate have been exposed to
years worth of conflicting science. In the past few months
alone, research projects under way in several countries have suggested
that EMFs may cause fatigue and immunological problems (France), ALS
(Denmark), high blood pressure (Germany) and testicular and skin
cancers (Canada). Sastre and a Kansas City colleague recently found
that EMFs can disrupt heart rhythms and may lead to elevated cardiac
risks. And researchers in Washington state have discovered that EMF
can block melatonin's ability to stem the growth of breast
cancer cells.
For every study that reaches such a conclusion, however, there
seems to be at least one that says the opposite. The cancer rate among
people living near an antenna complex outside of Denver, for instance,
was found to be no higher than that of the surrounding area. Further
clouding matters is the evidence that EMF can sometimes be good for
you. University of Washington scientists believe that a low-frequency
magnetic field can be used to treat malaria by killing parasites
that feed on human blood.
On to Congress
Even more puzzling, years of research have failed to demonstrate that
EMFs cause cancer or other serious health problems in laboratory
animals, even when administered at extremely high levels throughout an
animal's entire lifetime. Faced with epidemiological evidence to
the contrary, statistics showing that EMF seems to be causing
cancer in certain real-world settings, experts simply don't
know what to make of the mixed messages that science is sending.
While the environmental health panel stopped short of saying that
EMFs cause cancer in laboratory animals, such creatures do undergo
certain neurological shifts when exposed to EMFs in a controlled
environment, including behavioral and chemical changes.
The Minnesota group's 523-page report now goes on to
Congress. Federal lawmakers ordered the study as part of the National
Energy Policy Act of 1992, which, ironically, was designed to make
electricity even more available to the public by deregulating the
utilities industry.
[......Let's give ABC news a B+ on this one!!!.....guru......]
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