ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, October 26, 1996 TAG: 9610280074
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-2 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: LONDON
SOURCE: Associated Press
Magnetic fields created by high-voltage power lines are unlikely to significantly increase the risk of cancer, researchers from Finland concluded in a study released Friday.
A nationwide study of 383,700 people found almost no difference in the incidence of cancer among adults living within 500 yards of overhead power lines when compared with the population as a whole.
The researchers said the results, published in the British Medical Journal, suggest strongly that typical magnetic fields generated by high-voltage power lines in residential areas ``are not related to cancer in adults.''
Since 1979, public concern has been raised over the possible health effects of low-frequency electromagnetic fields emitted from power lines, transmitters, and common household items such as computers, televisions, electric blankets, microwave ovens and cellular phones.
Only seven or eight studies have been done on residences near power lines, according to Dr. Gilles Theriault, chairman of the Department of Occupational Health at McGill University in Montreal, whose 1994 study found links between magnetic fields and cancer in utility workers.
The results of studies on residences along power lines have been mixed: Some found an increase in leukemia among adults and children. Some found no increase in cancer, he said.
``That means the controversy remains,'' said Theriault. ``There is still a need for research on adults who live along high-voltage power lines. This study is certainly a great contribution to the issue.''
The Finnish researchers said theirs was the first study involving an entire nation on the relation of residential magnetic fields and cancer in adults, and was larger than previous residential studies.
They used nationwide building, population and cancer registers to study 383,700 people living near power lines between 1970 and 1989.
They found 8,415 cases of cancer, a figure 2 percent lower than the 8,587 cases expected in the general Finnish population.
The researchers then screened more than 20 types of cancer to determine whether there was an increased risk from any particular variety.
``The previously suggested associations between magnetic fields and tumors of the nervous system, lymphoma, leukemia, and breast cancer in women were not confirmed,'' the researchers said.
But the study found small increases in three other cancers - the skin cancer melanoma, colon cancer in women, and a tumor of the blood marrow called myeloma.
The researchers, led by Pia K. Verkasalo of the Department of Health at the University of Helsinki, concluded that the possible role of magnetic fields in these three cancers ``remains uncertain.''
If the 8 percent increase in melanoma was due to extremely low-frequency magnetic fields, ``this would correspond to less than one extra case out of several hundred cases annually in the Finnish population of 5 million,'' they said.
While the study found no increased risk from low-frequency magnetic fields from power lines, the researchers said, ``the possibility of an increase in risk at higher magnetic field levels ... cannot be excluded on the basis of this study.''
LENGTH: Medium: 65 linesby CNB