Since 1993, the California Department of Health Sciences has led a project initiated by the California Public Utilities Commission titled “The California EMF Project.”  The project cost $7 million, and is now complete.

As part of this project, the Department of Health Sciences initiated new studies and reviewed the literature.

Here is our analysis of its findings.

Introduction

The Evaluation does not specifically incorporate studies published after its cutoff date of June 24, 2000.  Research produced after the deadline include the British Journal study in which the authors of the major previous studies reversed their previous findings, the Washington State study finding a five-fold increase in childhood leukemia, and the German study finding children exposed in their bedrooms to high magnetic fields are particularly likely to develop childhood leukemia.

Nevertheless, even without these studies, the Evaluation is valuable because it reflects the considered opinion of health experts derived after a long period of research.

It evaluates the risks associated with EMF based upon a new measure, causation.  Heretofore major reviews usually have asked if there is an association between EMF and various diseases.  It is possible to have an associated without a cause/effect relationship.  The association could be coincidental.  It could appear to exist when it does not because of study errors.  An association might exist but be of little analytical significance because of confounding factors like pollution or level of income.

The causation standard is more rigorous because it demands the cause effect finding, and mandates that there is no evidence of bias, errors, or confounding factors. 

Major Findings

·          Magnetic fields likely cause childhood and adult leukemia, adult brain cancer, spontaneous abortions, and ALS. 

·          They possibly cause childhood brain cancer, female and male breast cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, suicide, and heart problems. 

·          They are unlikely to universally impact all types of cancer or reproductive failures other than spontaneous abortions

·          There is insufficient information to determine if magnetic fields cause clinical depression.

Associated Findings

·          Animal studies show that magnetic fields at low intensities have profound effects on selective biological organisms.

·          The report finds that, with respect to the diseases possibly or likely caused by EMF “even a slight additional lifetime risk could be of concern to regulators, who already regulate other environmental concerns that convey even lower risks.”

·          The report notes a full mechanistic understanding does not now exist to explain why EMF could cause serious disease.  The report goes on to note, however, “The lack of mechanistic understanding is initially … common in harmful agents.”

·          Once the benchmark 2 to 16 mG intensities of EMF are passed, risks do not appear to increase substantially as EMF increases.

Specific Results

The following graph shows the Project’s range of the estimates of probabilities that EMF causes specific diseases.  “Prior confidence” is the researchers’ estimate of the overall disease probability assigned before learning about the recent research results. 

The Need for New Studies

·          Funding for magnetic field research has declined dramatically in the last few years.  In particular, in spite of the utilities industries call for more research, research on magnetic fields by the utilities’ research arm, the EPRI, has declined to one-third of its level three years ago.