British researchers link power lines to leukemia
Jul 11, 2005
A new British study has found a statistical link between living close to a high-voltage power line and childhood leukaemia, according to a study published in the <i>British Medical Journal</i>.
A new British study has found a statistical link between living close to a high-voltage power line and childhood leukaemia, according to a study published in the British Medical Journal.
Gerald Draper and staff from the Childhood Cancer Research Group at Oxford University and John Swanson, scientific adviser to the national grid company, Transco, measured the distance from children’s home addresses at birth from the nearest high voltage power line.
They found that children living within 200 metres of a power line were about 70% more likely to develop leukaemia compared to those who lived beyond 600 metres.
The group in between had a 20% high chance of contracting leukaemia. The researchers acknowledged their results were not conclusive and said the link could be down to chance.
Previous research has linked low frequency magnetic fields, like those caused by power lines, could be linked to cancer. The new research looked at more than 29,000 children with cancer, including 9,700 with leukaemia, born between 1962 and 1995, and a control group of children without cancer.
The study found 64 children with leukaemia lived within 200 metres of the line, while 258 lived between 200-600 metres away. It concluded that about five of the 400 cases of childhood leukaemia that occur each year in England and Wales could be linked to power lines.
No link was found to other cancers.
“It may not be the effect of power lines at all. It may be something to do with the kind of areas where power lines are located, or the sort of people, who live in these areas and we will be looking at that further,†Draper said.
He found that children from better-off families and those living in less densely populated areas appeared to be at a slightly higher risk of leukaemia and said this needed to be investigated further.
Swanson said the electricity generation industry wanted to probe theories about links to childhood leukaemia.
dpa
Gerald Draper and staff from the Childhood Cancer Research Group at Oxford University and John Swanson, scientific adviser to the national grid company, Transco, measured the distance from children’s home addresses at birth from the nearest high voltage power line.
They found that children living within 200 metres of a power line were about 70% more likely to develop leukaemia compared to those who lived beyond 600 metres.
The group in between had a 20% high chance of contracting leukaemia. The researchers acknowledged their results were not conclusive and said the link could be down to chance.
Previous research has linked low frequency magnetic fields, like those caused by power lines, could be linked to cancer. The new research looked at more than 29,000 children with cancer, including 9,700 with leukaemia, born between 1962 and 1995, and a control group of children without cancer.
The study found 64 children with leukaemia lived within 200 metres of the line, while 258 lived between 200-600 metres away. It concluded that about five of the 400 cases of childhood leukaemia that occur each year in England and Wales could be linked to power lines.
No link was found to other cancers.
“It may not be the effect of power lines at all. It may be something to do with the kind of areas where power lines are located, or the sort of people, who live in these areas and we will be looking at that further,†Draper said.
He found that children from better-off families and those living in less densely populated areas appeared to be at a slightly higher risk of leukaemia and said this needed to be investigated further.
Swanson said the electricity generation industry wanted to probe theories about links to childhood leukaemia.
dpa