Re: NIH: Electric fields pose cancer risk

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In a message dated 98-07-06 20:58:14 EDT, jmoulder@post.its.mcw.edu (John
Moulder) writes:

<<All the working group really says is that they cannot prove that a link is
impossible, thus they must conclude that a link is "possible".>>

The NIH press release states:  "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."  It appears that the majority of the panel gave these studies
enough weight to rule out a finding of "not a human carcinogen" or
"unclassifiable."

While you may disagree with the panel's conclusion and dispute whether the
epidemiological reports show a link between EMF and childhood leukemia, it is
a distortion to say the panel found EMF a "possible carcinogen" because they
could not prove it was impossible.  As has been noted elsewhere, if the NIH
actually follows your rationale (i.e., you can't prove a negative), there
would be no point to having a category "not a human carcinogen."  And, the
panel even had the option of finding EMF to be "unclassifiable," but they did
not do this (though, a large minority did).