SCIENTISTS BACK STUDY OF ELECTRICITY

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

DATE: TUESDAY, February 16, 1993                   TAG: 9302160191
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: BOSTON                                LENGTH: Short
SCIENTISTS BACK STUDY OF ELECTRICITY
The weak magnetic fields created by electric power lines, home wiring and household appliances may be harmful to human health, but the issue needs more research, a panel of scientists said Monday.
That conclusion came at the annual meeting of the National Association for the Advancement of Science: "Do Power Lines Cause Cancer?" The scientists said they and most of their colleagues consider it an open question.
"It's not likely that you can come up with a smoking gun either way," said Howard Wachtel, a professor of electrical engineering at the University of Colorado. He said some studies suggest a link between magnetic fields and childhood leukemia, but he said others are contradictory.
Wachtel, one of the pioneers in the research into the link between electricity and health, said all the existing studies contain a basic flaw: the impossibility of determining accurately how much magnetic force any individual was exposed to over a given period.

by Archana Subramaniam by CNB