NIH: Electric fields pose cancer risk

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National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences press release
[http://www.niehs.nih.gov/oc/news/emfmtg.htm]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE        NIEHS Contact: Bill Grigg, 301/402-3378
June 24, 1998
919/541-3665  
NIEHS PR # 11-98                                                   Home:
301/652-1864
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PANEL EVALUATES ELECTRIC AND MAGNETIC FIELDS FOR HEALTH EFFECTS

An international panel of experts convened by the National Institute of 
Environmental Health Sciences reported to the institute today that 
electric and magnetic fields like those surrounding electric power lines 
should be regarded as a "possible human carcinogen." 

The panel vote 19 to 9 was based largely on epidemiological evidence in 
the face of animal and other laboratory studies that the panel agreed 
did not support or refute the population studies. Because of the 
conflicting studies, eight members found the EMF fields not classifiable 
as to carcinogenicity, while one member of the panel said EMF probably 
is not carcinogenic to humans. 

Two long-term studies in rodents demonstrated no carcinogenic response, 
while one showed an equivocal response in one sex of one species. The 
panel said that neither these studies or other lab work proved or 
refuted the epidemiology. 

The epidemiological studies showed a slight increase in childhood 
leukemia risk from power line/residential exposures and an increase in 
chronic leukemia risk in adults in electricity-intensive industries. 

"This report does not suggest that the risk is high" said, chairman 
Michael Gallo, Ph.D., professor and center director at the University of 
Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Robert Wood Medical School in 
Piscataway, N.J. "It is probably quite small, compared to many other 
public health risks. However, I strongly believe that additional 
hypothesis-driven, focused research should be pursued to reduce 
uncertainties in this arena." 

The scientists’ report will be utilized by NIEHS in preparing a report 
to Congress and the federal regulatory agencies surveying the state of 
research on the potential health effects from exposure to power-line 
frequency electric and magnetic fields. 

The panel found inadequate evidence in various studies for a link to 
such non-cancer diseases as Alzheimer’s, depression and birth defects, 
and no clear evidence of danger of abortion from video display 
terminals. "There is inadequate evidence," the panel said, "for 
carcinogenicity to adults of residential exposure to extremely low 
frequency magnetic fields." And the panel found the data linking 
children’s cancers other than leukemia to be inadequate. 

Convened by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, one 
of the National Institutes of Health, the panel was comprised of about 
20 researchers in electrical and magnetic fields, or EMF, and ten 
scientists from other fields. 

Hundreds of studies in animals and cells were considered in the 
evaluation as part of the evidence for potential human effects. Many of 
these studies showed little or no effect, raising questions about the 
weak associations seen in some epidemiologic studies. But the 
international criteria agreed upon gave great weight to human 
carcinogenicity. 

The panel began this review six months ago when members prepared 
summaries of the data. They convened ten days ago in Brooklyn Park, a 
suburb of Minneapolis, where they debated the quality and meaning of the 
scientific evidence. Some of the expert panel members came from Sweden, 
Japan, Italy and France. After a further public comment period, NIEHS 
Director Kenneth Olden, Ph.D., will use the report as he prepares his 
own report to Congress on the issue. 

Congress and industry have accelerated EMF research over the past six 
years, with Congress appropriating $23 million and the electrical 
industry matching it. NIEHS used an additional $10 million of its own 
appropriated funds to supplement the research as needed. 

Public concern about EMF and cancer was stimulated by a 1979 study in 
Denver, Colo., that found that a group of children who had died from 
leukemia and other cancers were two to three times more likely to have 
lived within 131 feet of a high current electrical transmission or 
distribution line. A 1995 publication lists 14 such studies—eight of 
them showing a possible link to some cancers but only four of them at 
levels considered statistically significant. The nine studies considered 
best by the panel were used for their evaluation. 

The concern eventually encompassed electric blankets for children and 
other appliances, as well as the wiring in homes and the very high 
levels of EMF in some industries. (Electric blankets and some other 
appliances have been redesigned, greatly reducing their EMF.) 

Although the Department of Energy and the NIEHS, a part of the National 
Institutes of Health, already had been conducting and supporting some 
EMF-related research, Congress accelerated the work under a program 
called EMF/RAPID. 

While epidemiological studies continued to try to clarify possible 
effects in people, EMF/RAPID concentrated on studies in biological 
systems, fowl and rodents that might support or contradict an EMF 
effect. 

Other studies considered by the panel of experts were performed on 
cells, and computer simulations were also used. 

A copy of the report, or a non-technical summary, will be available in 
late July and can be requested by writing EMF/RAPID, NIEHS, PO Box 
12233, Research Triangle Park, NC 27709. The report and summary will 
also be on the EMF/RAPID web site: 
http://www.niehs.nih.gov/emfrapid/home.htm 

Public comments on the report agreed to today will be sought for two 
months. There will also be hearings for public comment in San Francisco, 
Chicago and Washington in August (planning continues) and in Tucson, 
Ariz., Sept. 14-15. 

Research on EMF-related issues is likely to continue. Its focus may be 
re-directed on the advice of the expert panel and others. NIEHS Director 
Olden’s report to Congress is not required by law to follow the views of 
the experts but their views, requested by NIEHS, are likely to get great 
weight. 

Arnold L. Brown, M.D., of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, was 
vice chair. The panel was convened and organized by Christopher J. 
Portier, Ph.D., chief of the Laboratory of Computational Biology and 
Risk Analysis at the NIEHS, with advice from the National EMF 
Interagency Committee chaired by Shirley D. Linde of Los Angeles, and 
the National EMF Interagency Committee representing 11 federal 
regulatory agencies. Some of the experts have done research on EMF while 
others have distinguished themselves in other research fields. The 
scientists were assembled from organizations in Sweden, France, Japan 
and Italy as well as from Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratory in 
Richland, Wash., the National Institute for Occupational Safety and 
Health in Cincinnati, Ohio, Northwestern University Medical School in 
Chicago, the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, the Midwest 
Research Institute in Kansas City, Mo., the State University of New York 
at Stony Brook, and the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Md. 

Members of national advisory groups, members of the public and the press 
observed the discussions throughout the lengthy, open meeting. 

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