Exposure to high voltage power lines does not increase the risk of childhood leukemia. This is the result of a 46-year follow-up study in the UK.
High voltage overhead lines do not increase the risk of acute childhood leukemia. This is what a study published on February 7 in the British Journal of Cancer. The childhood cancer research group at the University of Oxford (UK) analyzed data on the lives of 16,500 children with this type of cancer between 1962 and 2008.
Magnetic fields classified as carcinogenic
The source of concern for families and scientists is the emission of extremely low frequency magnetic fields from high voltage lines. These magnetic fields were classified as “possible carcinogens” by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in 2007. They are particularly responsible for acute childhood leukemia.
However, this study shows that the risk was real until the early 1980s, but that afterwards, being born to a mother living less than a kilometer from a high-voltage overhead line no longer exposed a risk of developing disease. “It is very encouraging to see that over the past decades there has been no increased risk of leukemia in children born near a power line. Further studies are needed to determine why previous studies suggested a risk before the 1980s. But parents can be reassured by the results of this study, ”said Dr. Kathryn Bunch, lead author of the study.
Contradictory results
A previous study, published in 2005, showed that children born less than 600m from a high-voltage line were exposed to a relative increased risk of acute leukemia. Proof that the debate is not closed, we observe in France a double position. A study has suggested that there is no risk for high voltage lines, a slight risk for very high voltage lines but on condition of living within 50m of such an installation. However, since 2013, it is not recommended, as a precaution, to set up these lines near so-called “sensitive” establishments: hospitals, maternities, nurseries, schools. It will therefore be necessary to precisely quantify the risk associated with exposure to low-frequency magnetic fields before all doubts are allayed.
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