SECTION: WORLD; Pg. B2

LENGTH: 710 words

HEADLINE: Top World newsmaker: Study links powerlines to cancer;
U.S. research supports claims of health damage from electrical emissions

SOURCE: The Sunday Telegraph

BYLINE: Andrew Alderson

DATELINE: London

BODY:
Overhead powerlines and household electrical appliances increase the risk of developing cancer, according to the findings of an eight-year study into the effects of electromagnetic fields (EMFs).

The $10-million Cdn Californian study, the largest held into the effects of EMFs on health, suggests that hundreds of thousands of people, particularly children, are at risk from life-threatening illnesses linked to the emissions. Pregnant women are also at greater risk of miscarrying.

The latest study was commissioned by the California Public Utilities Commission, which is expected to publish the full report in the next few months. Scientists reviewed scores of previous studies from all over the world, including Britain and carried out new research in the San Francisco area.

The researchers told The Sunday Telegraph that they believe that EMFs increase the risks of life-threatening illnesses including childhood leuke-mia, adult brain cancer and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a degenerative disease that attacks nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.

Its findings will be seized on by campaigners who argue EMFs from overhead powerlines and mobile phone masts are responsible for cancer and leukemia "clusters" across the U.K.

The National Radiological Protection Board, the British government watchdog on radiation, reported last year that its studies into the effect of EMFs had been inconclusive.

Dr. Raymond Neutra of the California Department of Health Services, who led the research, said: "In Britain, hundreds of thousands of homes are exposed to levels (of EMFs) that mean they could be at risk."

Dr. Vincent DelPizzo, a senior member of the research team, said: "People have a right to be warned, but whether a major effort to reduce EMFs is appropriate must still be decided."

The first suspected link between overhead powerlines and cancer was made in the U.S.in 1979. Some reports, however, have dismissed a connection, while others have said that evidence is inconclusive.

Until now, those considering long and costly legal action have been advised that it would probably fail because of lack of proof.

John Scott, a Conservative legislator in the Scottish parliament who led an unsuccessful campaign to stop the erection of more than 200 pylons in South Ayrshire, said: "The implications of this (study) could be enormous for the power-generating companies."

If the report bolsters demands for the burying of all power cables, the cost will run into billions of dollars.

The power companies could face a string of lawsuits from families who claim to have been affected by EMFs, as could manufacturers of domestic appliances.

Martyn Day, a solicitor representing a dozen families who are considering legal action against power companies they claim were negligent, said: "The evidence has been accumulating over the past 23 years and this sounds a very significant piece of additional information."

In the U.S., up to five per cent of homes have EMF levels considered potentially dangerous. It is estimated that the same percentage of homes in Britain could be at risk, either because of nearby powerlines, internal wiring or electrical equipment.

Dr. Michael Clark, the scientific spokesman for the National Radiological Protection Board, said that the board welcomed new research into the effect of EMFs but would not comment on the findings from California until it had studied the full report.

Roger Coghill, who runs an independent science laboratory in Pontypool, Gwent and who has studied the effect of EMFs on people's health for more than a decade, said that he was impressed by the latest research project.

"This is a huge, well-conducted study and people must pay attention to its results.

"Some power companies have deliberately suppressed research in this field. But in the end the truth will out and here it is.

"We are all on the same side: We all want electricity but none of us wants brain tumours."

Exactly how cancer could be caused by such exposure remains a mystery, however. The strength of the magnetic fields falls away rapidly from overhead powerlines.

Studies of living cells and animals exposed to such weak fields have failed to reveal any changes normally linked to cancer.

 

SECTION: News; Pg. A2

LENGTH: 898 words

HEADLINE: Hydro lines increase cancer risk: U.S. study: Appliances also a hazard: Canadian experts say evidence is still inconclusive

SOURCE: National Post, with files from news services

BYLINE: Tom Arnold

BODY:
Overhead power lines and household electrical appliances very likely increase the risk of developing cancer, according to preliminary findings from an eight-year study into the health effects of electromagnetic fields.

The California study, considered the largest project examining the effects of electromagnetic fields (EMFs) on health, suggests hundreds of thousands of people, particularly children, are at risk from life-threatening illnesses linked to the emissions. Pregnant women are also at greater risk of miscarriage.

The latest findings were commissioned by the California Public Utilities Commission, which is expected to publish the full report within several months. Scientists also reviewed a large number of previous studies from around the world and carried out new research in the San Francisco area. The researchers said their findings show EMFs increase the risks of life-threatening illnesses, including childhood leukemia, adult brain cancer and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a degenerative disease that attacks nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.

"People have a right to be warned, but whether a major effort to reduce EMFs is appropriate must still be decided," said Vincent DelPizzo, a senior member of the research team from the California Department of Health Services.

Fergal Nolan, president of the Radiation Safety Institute of Canada, a national independent safety group, said: "So far, the information that's been available says the evidence is inconclusive.

"Assertions have come out and have said EMFs have been causing cancers, but no reliable scientific evidence has come out to date to support that."

"This may tip the balance, I don't know yet," said Tony Muc, president and chief physicist with Canadian-based Radiation Health and Safety Consulting.

The findings could be "as significant as conclusions about smoking and lung cancer," he said. "Now the evidence is strong [on tobacco-related cancer] despite the early debates decades ago whether or not smoking was harmful."

However, Mr. Muc, who has studied the issue for 30 years, said: "I am in the camp that would still say, pending a further look at this particular study, that it remains inconclusive."

Mr. Muc taught non-ionizing radiation with an emphasis on environmental health and safety issues at the University of Toronto for more than 20 years.

Neither specialist would comment on the specific findings because they have not reviewed the research and its methodology.

"If the study comes out and shows conclusively that EMF exposure from power lines and home appliances, your ovens and clothing irons and kettles, cause cancer, well, that is a very serious matter," Mr. Nolan said. "Certainly, it would be significant."

"All you have to do is look out the window and see there are power lines everywhere," he added. "If one is exposed to EMF from all kinds of sources in common use, that is obviously a serious matter. It would become a public health issue."

Regardless of conflicting findings, governments, communities and individuals across the country have taken some precautions.

In some cities, power lines running along or over highways and residential areas now are carried by much higher poles. A more costly option, removing them from the air and placing them underground, has been considered but the option is very costly.

"There appears to be a lot of concern in the public and the workplace about this, to the extent when a power line or a cellphone tower are proposed near neighbourhoods [people don't want them there]," Mr. Nolan said.

In 1994, a major study involving 223,000 men who worked at electric utilities in Ontario, Quebec and France linked exposure to magnetic fields to elevated rates of leukemia. It reviewed the cancer experience of workers employed at Ontario Hydro, Hydro-Quebec and Electricite de France from 1970 to 1989. Over the study period, the men developed 4,151 cases of cancer, of which 140 were leukemia and 108 were brain cancers.

It found those exposed to above-average magnetic fields had leukemia rates as much as three times the level of those exposed to weaker fields. It also found the incidence of brain cancer among workers exposed to the most intense magnetic fields was 12 times that of those exposed to weaker fields, but the result was considered inconclusive because of the small number of cases involved.

The latest findings could prompt a string of lawsuits against power companies or domestic appliance manufacturers.

In Britain, Ray and Denise Studholme believe their son Simon would still be alive if he had not been subjected to a strong electromagnetic field in his bedroom.

The boy slept in a room where his head was less than one metre from an electricity meter and a burglar alarm in a hall cupboard. According to the family, tests after their son's death revealed the two appliances gave off an EMF more than six times the recommended safe limit.

Simon was diagnosed with leukemia in November, 1990. He died in September, 1992, aged 13.

The family hopes to use the study's findings to launch a case against their electricity supplier.

"If I had known about the electromagnetic fields, Simon would not have been sleeping there," Mr. Studholme said.

"Within six months of moving here, he used to get up in the morning complaining of headaches and feeling light-headed."

GRAPHIC: Black & White Photo: The Province; Hydro transmission lines are emitters of electromagnetic fields that a California report links to disease in humans.