For your information..
Andrew Michrowski
Further to the news last week of the TEAC press release,
here is the
final version, embargoed to Tuesday 7 September.
***********************************************************************
Childhood leukaemia risk doubles within 100 metres of high
voltage power
lines - damning results known for 3 years
The biggest ever publicly funded UK study [1] into power
lines and child
cancer has found that children under the age of 15 living
within 100
metres of high-voltage power lines have close to twice the
risk of
developing leukaemia. Children aged 0-5 are the most
vulnerable so their
risk is likely to be even higher.
This result from the OXFORD CHILDHOOD CANCER RESEARCH GROUP
study,
headed by Gerald Draper analysed and compared 33 years of
data (from1962
to1995) on 35,000 children diagnosed with cancer, with their
distance to
the nearest electricity transmission line. These latest
findings from
the Draper study of a direct effect on childhood leukaemia
from U.K.
power lines follow from the acknowledged International
studies that the
risk of childhood leukaemia is doubled for magnetic field
exposures
above 0.4 microtesla, well below that seen under high voltage
powerlines.
We have learned that " preliminary results" of the latest
Draper study,
funded to run from 1997-2001 were known as long as 3 years
ago and were
formally shown confidentially to the U.K. Department of
Health in May
2003, but to date has not as yet been entrusted to the
public.
We of the Trentham Environmental Action Campaign, an
independent
research and activist group, concerned about adverse health
effects from
power-lines, believe it to be absolutely scandalous that 3
years after
telling the Department of Health of these latest U.K.
findings, it is
only as a consequence of our intervention that we are now
able to make
these findings public. There appears to have been a
determination to
withhold the Draper Report for as long as possible.
Trentham has a high voltage powerline crossing many of the
houses and
there are a significant number of households with young
children within
100 metres of the line. Our concerns are also shared by
REVOLT,
Powerwatch and Electromagnetic Hazard and Therapy,
organisations which
have also voiced concerns about the health risks of
electromagnetic
fields for many years.
Our campaign group has been in constant contact with the
Government, Mr
George Hooker at the Department of Health and the National
Radiological
Protection Board [NRPB]. We have also been deeply
disappointed in the
organisations’ continuing denial of the problem despite
their knowing
about these new study results. The NRPB already acknowledges
that there
is international consensus on the fact that the incidence of
childhood
leukaemia is doubled at a magnetic field of 0.4 microtesla,
which is
exceeded under most powerlines. In March 2004, the NRPB
reduced the
national magnetic field exposure guidelines from 1,600
microtesla to 100
microtesla [3]. They said "In the light of these findings
(the
association between exposure to magnetic fields and
childhood leukaemia)
and the requirement for additional research, the need for
further
precautionary measures should be considered by government".
However, 100
microtesla is still 250 times higher than the level (0.4
microtesla) at
which the risk of developing childhood leukaemia is doubled.
Electromagnetic fields from powerlines are also linked to
adult cancers,
depression and suicide. Our Trentham group carried out a
local survey
which produced extremely worrying results. Depression,
miscarriages,
headaches, insomnia (with its attendant chronic health
problems due to
immune system damage) were much more common in the people
who lived near
the powerline, compared with those who lived further away.
Some of these
health problems were also found in the important California
Health
Department report [4] of 2002.
The leukaemia link has now been repeatedly demonstrated. The
government
should take our nation’s health seriously enough to stop
allowing houses
to be built near high-voltage lines and to remove overhead
powerlines
from residential areas.
The Minister for Housing and Planning, Keith Hill, in a
letter dated
July 2004, said "We are aware that there is continuing
debate about the
effect of living under power lines and whether this can have
adverse
long-term health effects. We are of the opinion that power
lines are
unlikely to have significant effects on the environment". Is
this a
government statement about people’s health or about the
environment? Is
this confusion, or spin?
It is time the government and planners took the health issue
seriously,
and reversed their policy of favouring developers, clearly
ignoring the
risk to children’s health. New housing near powerlines
should be
restricted, and existing lines through residential areas
phased out.
Only 50 years ago developing childhood leukaemia was an
almost certain
death sentence. Due to dramatic improvements in treatment,
about 80% of
children who suffer from the most common form of childhood
leukaemia
(ALL, acute lymphoblastic leukaemia) now live for more than
5 years
after treatment, but childhood leukaemia remains the largest
child
killer disease. Survivors often suffer ongoing adverse health
complications. The number of children developing leukaemia
has been
steadily growing over the last 50 years. In 2001, Dr Sam
Milham reported
[5] a link between the growth in electricity supply and the
growth in
leukaemia incidence in the USA.
We ignore this at our peril.
[1] Draper G, Vincent T, Kroll M & Swanson J - Childhood
cancer and
electromagnetic field exposures from powerlines – Department
of Health
funded 1997-2001, RRX 46 (as yet still unpublished)
[2] International Scientific Conference on the incidence,
causal
mechanisms and prevention of childhood leukaemia and other
cancers.
Westminster, 6-10th September 2004. See:
www.leukaemiaconference.org
[3] See: www.nrpb.org for details of their announcements and
downloadable publications
[4] Neutra R R, DelPizzo V & Lee G M – An Evaluation of the
possible
risks from electric and magnetic fields (EMFs) from power
lines,
internal wiring, electrical occupations & appliances, 2002,
California
Department of Health & Human Services, The Program, Oakland,
California.
http://www.dhs.ca.gov/ehib/emf/RiskEvaluation/riskeval.html
See
commentary on: www.electric-fields.bris.ac.uk
[5] Milham S & Ossiander E M – Historical evidence that
residential
electrification caused the emergence of the childhood
leukaemia peak
Medical Hypotheses, 2001, 56(3) 290-295
Further information about powerlines and health problems
(including the
Trentham survey) can be found on the following websites
TEAC http://www.revolt.co.uk/trentham Media (only) Tel:
01782 658648
Mobile 07963915428 ( Maureen A)
EMH&T http://www.em-hazard-therapy.com Simon Best 01730 816
799 (media
only)
Powerwatch http://www.powerwatch.org.uk/contents.asp
REVOLT http://www.revolt.co.uk
This press release has been issued by the Trentham
Environmental Action
Campaign
51 Earlsbrook Drive, Trentham, Stoke on Trent ST4 8DL email
maureenasbur@hotmail.com