Childhood leukemia and magnetic fields in Japan: A case-control study of
childhood leukemia and residential power-frequency magnetic fields in Japan
July 11... Magnetic
fields have been linked to childhood cancer in many countries and now it's also
been shown in Japan. Michinori Kabuto, of the National Institute of
Environmental Studies in Ibaraki, along with a number of collaborators have
found that children exposed to 4mG (0.4µT) or more in their bedrooms had close
to five times more leukemia than those living in low-exposure homes. This
statistically significant finding appears in the August 1st issue of the International Journal of Cancer.
One big advantage of this study is that it's the first to measure residential
magnetic fields over the course of a full week, rather than just 24 hours —as
was the case, for instance, in the 1997 U.S. National Cancer Institute study.
These extra measurements show that there was a great deal of variation in homes
with high-field levels. Kabuto explains that when he compared the leukemia risk
for each of the seven days separately, the leukemia risk on the highest
exposure day was nearly twice that for the lowest exposure day. That's a big
difference and could explain some of the inconsistencies in past studies.
On the negative side, the participation rate for the controls was less than
30%, which is extremely low. Kabuto was well aware that this could have played
havoc wih his entire study and he did what he could to investigate its
implications. "[S]election bias per se cannot fully explain our
positive finding," he concludes.
Whatever its strength and weaknesses, the Japanese study is the last major
epidemiological study of EMFs and childhood leukemia we can expect for a long
time. Decisions concerning the adoption of precautionary policies will have to
be made with the information we now have in hand.
Source: http://www.microwavenews.com/