Subject: U.S.Media Finally Prints One... Date: Tue, 20 Aug 1996 162411 -0500 (CDT) From: "Roy L. Beavers" <rbeavers@mail.llion.org> To: Multiple recipients of list <emf-l@mail.llion.org> -------------------------------------------------- U.S. Media Finally Prints One....... The following is quoted verbatim from a news story issued by the NEW YORK TIMES News Service: "Electric fields may cause chemical changes in women to promote the disease [breast cancer], a study says. "Women who work near main-frame computers or other equipment that generate strong magnetic fields may face an increased risk of breast cancer, according to a study led by Boston University Medical School researchers. "The scientists called for further investigation of the possible link, saying that the added risk they had uncovered was "modest" and that the estimates of exposure were "crude." "The epidemiology is very muddy, and what we finally said, after much angst, is, 'This is consistent with the hypothesis' that electric fields can cause chemical changes in the body that promote breast cancer," said Patricia F. Coogan, an epidemiologist at the BU School of Medicine. "It certainly doesn't answer the question," she added in an interview Monday , "yet it's an intriguing finding and supports the idea that this is a reasonable exposure to look at as a risk factor" for breast cancer. "The study, published in the September issue of the journal EPIDEMIOLOGY, found that women whose jobs exposed them to high levels of electromagnetic radiation had a 43 percent greater chance of being diagnosed with breast cancer than those exposed to minimal radiation: In other words, they were nearly 1 1/2 times as likely to develop breast cancer. However, epidemiologists call that a "modest" or "weak" association. "Premenopausal women who worked around large main-frame computers had the highest added risk -- nearly twice that of women who had no unusual magnetic field exposures. "It was only the second study linking magnetic fields and breast cancer in women. A 1994 report in the JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL CANCER INSTITUTE made similar findings, but the new study has fewer flaws, researchers said. "Magnetic fields are created when electric current flows through wire coils. Recent animal experiments have shown that such fields can cause the body's pineal gland to turn down its production of melatonin, a hormone that is produced mainly at night and that helps regulate the sleep-wake cycle. "Melatonin also controls levels of the sex hormone estrogen in the body, and estrogen is believed to spur breast cells into faster growth, raising the risk of breast cancer. "Thus, magnetic radiation could cause or aggravate the growth of breast cancer by suppressing the normal nighttime production of melatonin. However, "There is conflicting evidence on whether this holds true in humans" as well as animals, said Stephanie London, an epidemiologist at the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences in Research Triangle, N.C. "The study, by Boston University researchers and colleagues from Wisconsin, Illinois and New Hampshire, was a spinoff of a large investigation of the effects of breast-feeding on breast cancer risk." ************** Guru will offer some comments in a separate message. ************* Zizzy -- save this! Roy Beavers (EMFguru) rbeavers@mail.llion.org http://www.feb.se/EMF-L/EMF-L.html 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