WHAT'S NEW - Friday, 31 May 02

[Susan Gawarecki <loc@icx.net>]

California foolishness, again.  Bob Park noted this in his weekly

e-newsletter:



EMF: CALIFORNIA PREPARES TO RESURRECT THE POWER LINE SCARE. 

It's been more than 20 years since it was first claimed that

power lines induce cancer.  In 1995 the APS Council stated that

such conjectures "have not been scientifically substantiated"

(http://www.aps.org/statements/95.2.html).  A year later, the

National Academy of Sciences concluded the same thing (WN 1 Nov

96).  In 1997, a National Cancer Institute epidemiological study

found no detectable EMF/cancer link (WN 4 Jul 97).  Not a single

lawsuit based on health effects of EMF has ever succeeded.  Yet,

California's Department of Health Services, inexplicably turned

to three obscure scientists in the Department to "review" EMF

studies.  Without any new evidence, the three "are inclined to

believe that EMFs can cause some degree of increased risk of

childhood leukemia, adult brain cancer, Lou Gehrig's disease and

miscarriage."  Their review has not yet been released to the

public.  When it is, it will start this whole thing up again. 



(Christy Fernandez contributed to this week's What's New.)

THE UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND and THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY

Opinions are the authors and are not necessarily shared by the

American Physical Society or the University, but they should be.



--Susan Gawarecki

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