http://www.healthsentinel.com/news.php?event=news_print_list_item&id=363

Charles Arthur, "Power lines double risk of cancer in children",
Independent, October 30, 2004,
Link: http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/story.jsp?story=577526

Living near a high-voltage power line roughly doubles the risk of
childhood cancers such as leukaemia, scientists say.

Dr Gerald Draper of the Oxford-based Childhood Cancer Research Group
said a recent study he led looked at 35,000 cases of childhood
leukaemia and other cancers between 1962 and 1995, and results suggest
a slightly higher chance of children living within 100 metres of a
high-tension overhead cable developing the disease.

But he angrily denied claims that the work had been suppressed by
himself or the Department of Health, which commissioned the study. He
also emphasised that the link to childhood cancers was weak.

An independent group, the Trentham Environmental Action Campaign,
estimated the power-line effect would cause between two and six of the
500-odd cases of child leukaemia reported each year in Britain. On
average, one in 2,000 children under 15 develops leukaemia, and there
are 1,500 childhood cancers each year. Some international studies have
shown children exposed to the highest electromagnetic fields (EMF) in
the home - as it often is in houses below power lines - are twice as
likely to suffer leukaemia as children exposed to low EMF.

About 0.5 per cent of the UK population live in houses above that
level, says the National Radiological Protection Board, which advises
the Government on hazards from radiation.

Maureen Asbury, president of the Trentham campaign, said: "The
Government should act now. We aren't prepared to wait 10 years while
they dither. First, ministers should legislate against building houses
near power lines. Then they should set up a project to remove the
lines that traverse homes. We know it can't be done immediately, but
it needs to be started."

But Dr Draper dismissed claims made on Sky News that he or the
Department of Health had tried to keep the findings secret. "We hope
to submit our paper, which is now complete, to a journal in about a
fortnight for publication," he said. "But it is untrue to say the DoH
is suppressing this work: it has been among those pressing me to get
it published.

"Second, even if it wanted to suppress them, my contract allows me to
publish what I want."

Sky News had claimed the results of the study were kept under wraps
for three years, after being presented in 2001. Dr Draper said he had
had no results to discuss in 2001. "About 18 months ago, I ran a
private workshop with other scientists to talk about my preliminary
findings, which were fuzzy; I did not understand them fully myself and
wanted to see if there were other explanations."

He rechecked the calculations to produce the final report. The study
does not find the biological mechanism by which power lines might
increase the risk of cancers.