American Physical Society Statement

[BobCherry@aol.com]

The following appeared in the American Physical Society's December 1998
newsletter:

At its September meeting, the American Physical Society Executive Board
reaffirmed the Society's 1995 statement [http:// www.aps.org/statements] on
power line fields and public health, triggered by public concern over the
perceived potential cancer risks of extreme low frequency electromagnetic
fields generated by said power lines. That statement concluded that
"conjectures relating cancer to power line fields have not been scientifically
substantiated." In fact, since then, additional scientific studies and
exhaustive epidemiological surveys have uncovered no evidence of health
effects from power line fields. The Executive Board was prompted by actions of
a panel convened by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences,
which voted to make EMF a "possible" carcinogen. Their claim contradicts a
3-year NRC review and monumental NCI epidemiological studies. In a second
statement approved at the same meeting, the APS Executive Board of the
American Physical Society affirmed its continuing support for the efforts of
its officers and others to achieve science content standards in the State of
California that are consistent with those developed by the NAS and AAAS.
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