ADVERSE EFFECTS OF HIGH-POWER LINES

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, January 19, 1992                   TAG: 9201200213
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: B-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
ADVERSE EFFECTS OF HIGH-POWER LINES
EVERYONE involved with the approval and construction of any power line should first read Paul Brodeur's book, "Currents of Death" (Simon and Schuster, 1989), which compiles available information on the possible hazards of power lines.
Brodeur is trying to alert Americans to the fact that as many as one of every four homes in America may be near a hazardous magnetic field created by high-current power lines and that children who live in these homes develop cancer at twice the rate as children who live elsewhere; that electricians, electrical and electronics engineers, telephone and power-company linemen, etc., those whose jobs expose them to low-frequency alternating-current magnetic fields, suffer cancer at a significantly higher rate than the general population.
For example, in May 1985, the three radar-repair technicians at the Federal Aviation Administration station in Albuquerque, N.M., had developed either endocrine or brain cancer.
Most of the time and money spent by the utility companies, electronics industry and the U.S. military has been to discredit any studies that adversely affect them. Now is the time to support independent epidemiological studies of persons working or living in an environment of low-frequency magnetic fields.
Appalachian Power Co. should be aware of the case of Houston Lighting & Power Co. vs. the Klein Independent School District of Houston over the right of way for a 345,000-volt transmission line that crossed school property in close proximity to an elementary school, an intermediate school and a high school. The power company sued and, based on the jury's verdict, the power company compensated the school district for actual damages of $104,275 and removed the power line from school property and rerouted it at a cost of more than $8.5 million.
The school district's main argument and concern was the effect of the 60-hertz electric and magnetic fields on their schoolchildren. Instead of "no," Apco should be saying "maybe." KENTON CHITTUM ABINGDON

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB