[ RadSafe ] To Reiterate: Cancer and Power Lines

[bobcherry at cox.net]

Another issue that won’t go away, from the June 6 issue of the APS News:
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Electric and Magnetic Fields and Public Health

On April 23, 1995, the American Physical Society issued a policy statement concerning Power Line Fields and Public Health. The APS concluded that “the conjecture relating cancer to power line fields has not been scientifically substantiated.”

Since that time, there have been several large in vivo studies of animal populations subjected for their life span to high magnetic fields, and also epidemiological studies, done with large populations and with direct, rather than surrogate, measurements of the magnetic field exposure. These studies have produced no results that change the earlier assessment by APS. In addition, no biophysical mechanisms for the initiation or promotion of cancer by electric or magnetic fields from power lines have been identified.
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Pay particular attention to the last sentence. Calculate the energy of a 50-Hz, 60-Hz, or RF photon and compare it to the binding energy of typical organic molecules. The result of your comparison will show why no biophysical mechanisms have been found. So far, only hand-waving (activists' wishful thinking?) arguments have been proposed for these mechanisms, IMO.

Bob C
Member, APS