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Aired August 15, 2002 - 18:00 ET
JAN HOPKINS, GUEST HOST: Tonight's floods wreak havoc in Europe. In Germany, Dresden is being evacuated on fears a wave of water will wash over the city. All efforts to save the city's historic buildings are being abandoned. We'll have a live report.
A major public health issue in this country: power lines. Tonight one of the strongest warnings yet over their safety.
Steve Young is covering that story.
STEVE YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jan, I'll have the results of an eight-year study on power lines which says the danger may be even greater than we first thought.
.....
HOPKINS: Researchers have found the strongest evidence yet of possible health risks from power lines. The California Health Department report -- it was a report. It cost $7 million. It took eight years to complete. It's certain to be strongly opposed by power utility companies in California and the rest of the country. Steve Young has the story.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STEVE YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Power line radiation has been implicated as a potential health risk before. But the more than 500-page report by the California Department of Health Services issues the strongest warning yet. The three authors say they, quote, "are inclined to believe that power line radiation increases the risk for childhood leukemia, adult brain cancer, Lou Gehrig's disease and miscarriages."
A copy of the eight-year study was obtained by the trade publication "Microwave News."
LOUIS SLESIN, PUBLISHER, "MICROWAVE NEWS": This report opens a Pandora's box for the electric utility industry which has tried over the last 10 years to dismiss this risk. But what this report is saying we have to pay attention because it's more than child leukemia. It's these other diseases and we need to get to the bottom of this.
YOUNG: The report even gives health risk odds; 54 percent to 95 percent greater chance of childhood leukemia; 51 to 80 percent greater risk of adult brain cancer; 51 to 59 percent greater chance of miscarriage; and 52 to 55 percent greater risk of Lou Gehrig's disease. The leading trade association, the Electric Power Research Institute, declined to comment on the report. It referred MONEYLINE to an outside scientist.
PATRICIA BUFFLER, UC-BERKELEY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: I think the association with childhood leukemia is tenuous, but suggestive. I think the evidence with regard to any other cancers in children or adults is insufficient.
YOUNG: Despite the strong health warning, the authors offer no advice on what if anything should be done.
VINCENT DELPIZZO, STUDY CO-AUTHOR: Decision makers can negotiate with interested parties to explore different scenarios, you know, explore different assumptions regarding the severity of the risk.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
YOUNG (on camera): The actual number of cases is hard to estimate. In childhood leukemia, for example, it might increase from one in 10,000 children with leukemia, to two in 10,000. A low risk, unless it's your child -- Jan.
HOPKINS: And a lot of these power lines are built over schoolyards, or the other way around. Schools are built under power lines. And that hasn't changed in the last few years or has it?
YOUNG: Not in this country. In Sweden, I believe, it's now against the law and has been for some time.
HOPKINS: Thank you, Steve Young.
My next guest is publisher of "Microwave News," the newsletter that broke the story about the latest research on power lines. Louis Slesin joins me now. And you may have seen him in Steve's report.
Now, Steve was just telling me that the California Department of Health actually tried to stop this story from going on the air. What is the department of health in California concerned about?
SLESIN: I think they are under a lot of pressure from the utility industry. This report was released as a draft last year, and at that time, there was an open comment period. And we monitored the comments. And the electric utility industry and their consultants filed many comments to try and dilute it.
HOPKINS: Because they have a vested interest in keeping these power lines up and not having more restrictions about where they can go, is that it?
SLESIN: Absolutely. And also, there is always the constant threat of litigation. If your child, say, did have leukemia, you might want to bring some kind of litigation to get some kind of compensation.
HOPKINS: But as a publisher of this newsletter, you are convinced that this is an important study?
SLESIN: It is a very large study. It took seven years or eight years, and they spent $7 million on it. They really, you know, they've been in all the meetings, they've been talking to all the experts for years. This is their final conclusion. I might also say it's the only work being done in this country at this time on this problem.
HOPKINS: Is there work being done in other countries on this problem?
SLESIN: In Europe, they're way ahead of us. They are spending a lot of time and a lot of money both on this and the related problems of cell phone radiation. It's day and night. In Europe, they've taken this extremely seriously. In this country, we're trying to ignore it. HOPKINS: And why do you think the difference?
SLESIN: Well, there's a lot of vested interest in both the cell phone and electric utility industry in Europe. The people are saying there's,, you know, much more green activity, that is, environmentalists are much stronger there. They want to know. Listen, there's lots you can do to protect yourself if you know what the risks are. That's what we need to do to get to the bottom of it, to know what needs to be done.
HOPKINS: But the critics say that this study involved only three authors and that maybe it should have been open to more, it should have been a bigger study, maybe an international study. What's your response to that?
SLESIN: In terms of like childhood leukemia, every blue ribbon panel has agreed with these people that there is a possible risk, and some might even go much further than that, of childhood leukemia with magnetic fields. In terms of the other ones, there is a loud discussion -- this is not out of left field. This is really a consensus of the people outside the industry, that is those who are not consultants to the industry. This is what people are saying at meetings. This is not, you know, very much different from the consensus of the community.
HOPKINS: In terms of recommendations of how to lessen the exposure, were there any in this particular study? Are there recommendations that are kind of out there.
SLESIN: There are recommendations out there, but the three authors decided not to include them in this report. And they've decided to let the California Public Utility Commission decide what needs to be done. They've asked the PUC to hold hearings and to engage in a public debate as to what needs to be done. This was a scientific issue. What we do about it becomes an economic and political issue. They are saying we're not going to deal with that. We're going to let the state people deal with it.
HOPKINS: Do you have recommendations? Do you have thoughts?
SLESIN: I think whenever you can, limit -- the buzz phrase in the field is "prudent avoidance" or "using precautionary measures." I think whenever you can avoid exposure, you should. I mean, don't built a power line next to a school. Don't...
HOPKINS: Don't build your house next to a power line.
SLESIN: That, too. We have to take this problem seriously because most of the risks are avoidable.
HOPKINS: Thank you very much. Louis Slesin, the publisher of "Microwave News."
SLESIN: Thank you.
HOPKINS: Thanks for joining us. Still to come on MONEYLINE, your e-mails and "In Their Words."
Plus, farmers count the huge cost of the drought that's covering half of the United States. We'll tell you what it will mean to you.
......
HOPKINS: Now the results of tonight's MONEYLINE poll. Our question: Do you think there are health risks associated with living near power lines? Seventy-one percent said yes, 29 percent said no.
.......
HOPKINS: That's MONEYLINE for this Thursday evening. Join us tomorrow when our guests include Jim Ellis, the editor of "BusinessWeek" magazine, and Steve Forbes, the president and CEO of Forbes. We'll be talking about this week's CEO certification deadline and the markets.
Thanks for joining us. For Lou Dobbs, I'm Jan Hopkins. Good night from New York.