Re: Non-ionizing radiation

["Fritz A. Seiler" <faseiler@nmia.com>]

Ruth Weiner wrote:

> The "bottom line" seems to be that no one has been able to demonstrate a
> consistent dose-response relationship between the magnetic field generated by AC
> and any kind of cancer.  I seem to recall an issue of either HEALTH PHYSICS or
> RISK ANALYSIS devoted to the subject, about 2 years ago. Bonneville did a
> thorough animal study and found nothing. The Wertheimer- Leeper study, which is
> often cited by those who want to think EM radiation gives one cancer, purported
> to find clusters of childhood leukemias in neighborhoods where ther was a visual
> proximity to power lines (that is, the power lines looked to be close to those
> houses where the childen had leukemia...).  Further investigation of these
> neighborhooods could not find a correlation between magnetic field and leukemia.
>  Also, the magnetic,field dose from an ordinary AC appliance (hair dryer,
> electric blanket, etc) is usually a lot more than from a powerline, because the
> receptor is a lot closer to the appliance.
>
> I thought the issue was dead.

Unfortunately, it is not dead, it is alive but not so well, still running around
like a headless chicken.  In addition to the sources already mentionned, there is an
overview issue of the journal TECHNOLOGY: JOURNAL OF THE FRANKLIN INSTITUTE, 334A,
vol. 1, 1997.  This special issue was edited by Dick Wilson and others at Harvard
and contains some excellent survey papers.
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Fritz A. Seiler, Ph.D.
Principal
Sigma Five Associates
P.O. Box 14006
Albuquerque, NM 87191-4006

Tel. 505-323-7848
Fax. 505-293-3911
e-mail: faseiler@nmia.com

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