Electricity-Leukemia Link Discounted

[Susan Gawarecki <loc@icx.net>]

FYI

SCIENCE NOTEBOOK
from The Washington Post

Electricity-Leukemia Link Discounted

A new study that meticulously measured children's exposure to
electromagnetic fields (EMF) has found "little support" for the idea
that
energy emanating from electrical wiring increases a child's risk of
developing leukemia.

The research, published in the May 1 issue of the American Journal of
Epidemiology, compared 399 Canadian children diagnosed with leukemia
between 1990 and 1995 to as many healthy children.

EMF exposure was measured in several ways. Children who had not
moved since becoming ill, as well as the healthy "control" children,
wore
backpacks containing EMF monitors for 48 hours. EMF readings were
also taken in bedrooms and at various sites outside the houses. For
children who had moved, measurements (minus the personal recordings)
were taken where they had lived two years before their cancer was
diagnosed. Because previous studies had found an association between the
type of electrical wiring and the leukemia risk, that relationship was
also studied.

A research team, headed by Mary L. McBride of the British Columbia
Cancer Agency in Canada, found that children with leukemia and those
without it had similar EMF exposures. Wiring configuration was not
associated with the disease, nor was the estimate of a mother's EMF
exposure in the year before her child was born.

For a few of the measurements recorded, children with leukemia--a cancer
of white blood cells--were slightly more likely to be in the high-EMF
dose
category. Overall, however, there was no clear trend.
-- 
==================================================
Susan L. Gawarecki, Ph.D., Executive Director
Oak Ridge Reservation Local Oversight Committee, Inc.
136 South Illinois Avenue, Suite 208
Oak Ridge, Tennessee  37830
Phone (423) 483-1333; Fax (423) 482-6572; E-mail loc@icx.net
VISIT OUR UPDATED WEB SITE:  http://www.local-oversight.org
==================================================
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