Subject: Prof. Henshaw - newspaper article & letter (Royds).
Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2000 144303 -0500
From: Roy Beavers
To: guru
--------------------------------------------------
Hi everybody:
This is an extremely interesting (and important!) message.....
First, you will read a newspaper account, which (as usual) attempts to
downplay the seriousness of the power line EMF hazards.... It uses the
same convoluted arguments and industry-supplied (and paid for) evidence
that regular readers of this list are already familiar with. That
evidence (WE know) does not deal with the "other" evidence which so
consistently has shown an association between certain illnesses and
living in near proximity to power lines.
Second (and more importantly!), you will read the comments of Professor
Denis Henshaw regarding the newspaper article.....
Third, guru adds an additional comment at the bottom.....
I hope this message gets the WIDE circulation which it deserves....!!!
Cheerio.... (Many thanks to John Royds for sending this....)
Roy Beavers (EMFguru)
roy@emfguru.com
It is better to light a single candle
than to curse the darkness..
WEBSITE: http://emfguru.com
People are more important than profit$$
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Prof. Henshaw - newspaper article & letter
Date: Wed, 27 Sep 2000 19:20:19 +0100
From: "John Royds"
To:
References: <39CE7B2C.5A82B616@emfguru.com>
Roy:
The Irish Times is one of Ireland's leading broadsheet dailies and their
science journalist, Dick Ahlstrom, wrote an article in Friday's edition
(22nd September) on Prof. Henshaw''s research. This can be found on The
Irish Times website www.ireland.com but I have pasted the article below as
well as the reply from Prof. Denis Henshaw published in to-day's edition
(27th September) in the "Letters to the Editor" section.
One acronym may puzzle EMF-L readers -- ESB stands for Electrcity Supply
Board (of Ireland).
best wishes,
John Royds
Timmore House
Newcastle
Greystones
Co. Wicklow
Republic of Ireland
tel/fax: +353-1-281 9283
email: royds@esatclear.ie
=================================
THE IRISH TIMES Friday, September 22, 2000 www.ireland.com
ILLNESS AND POWER LINES LINK YET TO BE PROVED
New research on the risks associated with living near electricity lines has
yet to make a definitive link, writes Dick Ahlstrom , Science Editor
Twenty years of work worldwide, involving 12,000 scientific studies costing
£300 million, have so far failed to establish definitively that illness can
be caused by living near overhead power lines. The latest research from
Britain has also yet to make this connection.
However, people want assurances that no risk will be discovered in the
future, and that life under the pylons will never result in disease. No
scientist worth his or her salt will make such a promise, however, and no
guarantee can be given.
Scientific research is a strange business, with every fact and bit of
knowledge assumed to be only conditionally true until it is proven
otherwise. Absolute promises are dangerous to make.
For this reason scientists constantly scrutinise one another's work,
testing and retesting claims made by others. An important part of this
process involves publication in journals in which research is subjected to
rigorous "peer review". This is intended to ensure that the work is
original, was properly done, and that strict controls were placed on the
collection and interpretation of the experimental data.
The latest of many scares relating to power lines arose this week from work
done by two researchers from the University of Bristol. Their studies claim
to show both how the power lines might cause a hazard and that the hazard
causes illness.
The hazard was defined by Prof Denis Henshaw in two research papers
published in the International Journal of Radia- tion Biology last December,
so these are not strictly new. In these papers he argues that power lines
continuously throw off ions, electrically charged particles produced by
sparking.
The ions in turn attach to pollution from cars and industry, giving
particles of the pollution an electrical charge. His theory, based on
research by others, holds that these charged pollutants will be much more
likely to stick to the lungs when breathed in, increasing the amount and
impact of the pollution.
The claims about actual illness relate to an as yet unpublished
epidemiological study carried out by Dr Alan Preece of the Bristol Medical
School. Although the study has yet to be offered for scientific scrutiny, he
released preliminary findings while attending a conference early last summer
in Munich.
He claimed at that time that an analysis of cancer incidence suggested there
was an estimated 29 per cent increased risk of illness for those living
within 400 metres of these lines. In particular, he said, the risk was for
those "downwind" of the lines, on the basis that the wind would blow
electrically charged pollutants towards them.
No further discussion of this work was available yesterday from either the
researcher or the university, according to Ms Joanne Fryer for the
University of Bristol, because the work had yet to be published.
His claims were available yesterday, however, on the Website of Powerwatch,
which campaigns about the alleged risks associated with power lines (http://
www.powerwatch.org.uk). Dr Preece was also preparing to discuss the work
last night on BBC Radio 4's Costing the Earth programme.
Mr John Gartland, the ESB's specialist on the effects of both electrical and
magnetic fields on human health, was predictably dismissive of both of these
research claims. "From our perspective it is old news," he said yesterday.
The company continually reviewed all research relating to power line safety,
he said, and acted on the basis of what the science was saying. "One of the
things for me is that the written science word is quite a precise tool as
opposed to what is said in a press release or on the radio."
He was unhappy, however, about the worry that reports of risks might cause
in the general public. "We are very concerned that people would be unduly
concerned," he said, adding that repeated studies had shown the risks to be
either not there at all or so small as to be of no consequence.
An Irish specialist, Dr Jim McLaughlin, the head of the radon research group
at University College Dublin, has studied how this natural pollutant is
influenced by the lines.
He and colleagues measured radon accumulation in Co Meath under the 440,000
volt transmission line that runs from Moneypoint to Dublin. Measurements
were taken up to several hundred metres either side of the line, both when
it was switched off for maintenance and while fully energised.
"We couldn't see any difference in the exposure between when the line was on
or off. We could detect no measurable effect on radon accumulation," he said
yesterday. "The power line didn't have any detectable effect."
================================================
The Irish Times (Wednesday 27th September 2000) www.ireland.com
Letters to the Editor
POWER LINES AND ILL HEALTH
Sir, - Dick Ahlstrom's article in your edition of September 22nd, apparently
written before the broadcasting of last Thursday's BBC Radio 4 programme
Costing the Earth, fails to convey the seriousness of our power line
measurements or of the legitimate public concern of reports of ill health in
living near power lines.
The behaviour of ionised particles emitted from high-voltage lines ("corona
ions", which are also responsible for the familiar sizzling noise from power
lines) was first established in the 1950s. In the 1980s, extensive
investigations in America were carried out into corona ion behaviour in the
atmosphere using high-voltage test lines. The findings were published in
power transmission industry journals.
The period of scientific peer review of these extensive measurements has
long passed and we are now in the realm of established, albeit specialised,
knowledge. (It should be emphasised that the radon measurements near power
lines by Dr McLaughlin to which Dick Ahlstrom refers have nothing to do with
corona ions or how they attach to particles of existing pollution in the
air, thereby increasing their lung retention on inhalation.)
Our work published last December illustrates the extent of corona ion
emission from today's power lines. The measurements used well-established,
albeit sophisticated, measuring equipment. These measurements demonstrate
both how increased exposure to air pollution occurs, as well as indicating
the likely level of this increase. Increased exposure implies increased risk
of those illnesses known to be associated with air pollution.
Dr Alan Preece of Bristol presented some data on cancer rates in adults near
power lines at a conference in Munich last June. Scientific conferences are
the right and proper place to present new ideas and preliminary data. It so
happened that several journalists also attended the conference and noted Dr
Preece's preliminary findings, as did a representative from the Irish
Department of Health. Those findings leaked out in last Thursday's BBC
programme. That they did not do so earlier is perhaps surprising.
This leak of an unfinished and unpublished investigation may in hindsight
serve to underline why a priori we are concerned about the public health
implications of our measurements. It may also serve to illustrate why
legitimate public concern at perceived increases in cancer incidence near
power lines, notably in Mr William Hague's Yorkshire constituency as voiced
in the BBC programme, warrants investigation.
Surprising though it may be, the effects on public health of corona ions has
not been investigated before. Their intensity near some power lines, which
has surprised even ourselves, has public health implications, as well as
implications for the siting of power lines anywhere near populated areas,
even if at all above ground. An informed public debate is called for. -
Yours, etc.,
Prof DENIS L. HENSHAW, H. H. Wills Physics Laboratory, University of
Bristol, England.
=============================
The Bristol University researchers website is at
http://www.electric-fields.bris.ac.uk
Guru adds the following.......
There is much of importance in Professor Henshaw's brief response
above. Not the least being: "an informed public debate is called
for." Amen. Amen....!!!
Of course, that is exactly what the governments do not want. Why??
I am tired of giving the answer that I think very accurately answers
the question..... It is time we had an answer from "the governments".
Why, Mr. Prime Minister (or Mr. President or Mr, Mayor or -- you fill
in the title) ... why will you not address this issue????
If you will but stop and briefly examine the mathematics of the
numbers of people whose health and life is being impacted by this
EMF power line phenomenon -- you will be startled into the realization
that it is one of (if not THE) biggest health/environmental problem
in society today...... Come on!!! Just look at the numbers.....!!!
Yours sincerely,
Roy Beavers (EMFguru)
roy@emfguru.com
It is better to light a single candle
than to curse the darkness..
WEBSITE: http://emfguru.com
People are more important than profit$$
Archive provided courtesy of WaveGuide, http://www.wave-guide.org
Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.emfguru.com