EMF, Suicide Risk Linked

["Bjorn Cedervall" <bcradsafers@hotmail.com>]

Just saw some new EMF correlations (use the link for full text).

Bjorn Cedervall  bcradsafers@hotmail.com
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http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=SCIENCE&STORYID=APIS7387OIG0


Study: EMF, Suicide Risk Linked

By RANDALL CHASE
Associated Press Writer

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Chronic exposure to low-frequency electromagnetic 
fields may be responsible for a higher suicide risk among electric utility 
workers, according to a new study.

While unable to prove that exposure causes suicide, researchers at the 
University of North Carolina found electricians for five U.S. power 
companies had twice the suicide rate and linemen 1 1/2 times the rate of 
utility workers not employed in those jobs.

The findings appeared Wednesday in the April issue of Occupational and 
Environmental Medicine.

The researchers studied about 6,000 men who were part of a larger group of 
about 139,000 employed as utility workers between 1950 and 1986. Research 
involving the larger study group has shown that some workers exposed to high 
magnetic fields have elevated cancer rates, but not that EMF exposure causes 
cancer.

One explanation for the possible link between exposure and suicide is that 
electromagnetic fields are thought to suppress melatonin levels in the body, 
said Edwin van Wijngaarden, a doctoral student and lead author of the UNC 
study.

``The EMF-cancer link is pretty controversial,'' van Wijngaarden said. 
``This may also be controversial, but at least there is a more plausible 
biological mechanism involved.''

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