http://www.buergerwelle.de/pdf/study_links_power_lines_to_childhood_cancer.htm


http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Draper

http://www.emfacts.com/weblog/index.php?p=70

The Draper study: An Australian perspective
http://www.emfacts.com/weblog/index.php?p=71

Comments on the Draper study
by Ian Macmillan
http://www.emfacts.com/weblog/index.php?p=92

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Childhood cancer in relation to distance from high voltage power lines in England and Wales: a case-control study

http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/abstract/330/7503/1290
http://www.news-medical.net/?id=10686


Informant: Sylvie

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http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Draper

Samstag, 4. Juni 2005

Wirbel um Studie: Hochspannung erhöht Leukämierisiko

London (dpa) - Eine Untersuchung eines möglichen Leukämierisikos für Kinder in der Nähe von Hochspannungsleitungen hat am Freitag für Wirbel in den britischen Medien gesorgt. Forscher um Gerald Draper von der Universität Oxford hatten in Großbritannien 64 Fälle von Leukämie bei Kindern gezählt, die zum Zeitpunkt ihrer Geburt näher als 200 Meter an einer Freileitung gemeldet waren. In einer entsprechenden Kontrollgruppe lebten 39 Kinder innerhalb derselben Distanz zu Hochspannungsleitungen. Die Forscher selbst räumen im Fachblatt «British Medical Journal» (Bd. 330, S. 1290) ein, dass dieser «Überschuss» von Leukämiefällen rein zufälliger Natur sein könnte. Es gebe «keine befriedigende Erklärung für die Ergebnisse im Hinblick auf magnetische Felder als Ursache», und die Befunde würden auch «nicht durch überzeugende Labordaten oder irgendeinen allgemein akzeptierten biologischen Mechanismus gestützt», schreiben sie. Die genauen Auslöser von Leukämien im Kindesalter sind nicht umfassend geklärt. Man sei sich heute jedoch einigermaßen sicher, dass oft Erbgutschäden vor der Geburt beteiligt seien, die wahrscheinlich mit Infektionen, Chemikalien, ionisierender Strahlung oder anderen Umwelteinflüssen zusammenhingen, kommentiert Heather O Dickinson von der Universität Newcastle in dem Fachjournal (S. 1279).

© Copyright 1998-2003 NetDoktor.de - All rights reserved

http://www2.netdoktor.de/nachrichten/index.asp?y=2005&m=6&d=4&id=119259

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HLV INFO 83/AT

4-06-2005

Studie: Leukämierisiko unter Hochspannungsleitungen höher
http://www.wissenschaft.de/wissen/news/253826.html

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http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Leukaemia
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Draper
http://www.google.de/search?hl=de&ie=UTF-8&q=Dr.+Gerald+Draper&btnG=Google-Suche&meta=

http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7460


Informant: Sylvie


http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Leukaemia
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Draper

Friday June 03rd 2005, 8:17 pm

Filed under: Power line news, Epidemiology, 50/60 Hz

The long awaited UK Draper study has finally been published in the British Medical Journal, confirming, yet again, the connection between environmental level powerline magnetic fields and childhood leukaemia.

How much more evidence do we need to protect public health?

With the current public concerns being expressed in New Zealand and Canada (previous message) over powerlines and health, how will ICNIRP’s BPIEs explain this one away?

I wonder how the current ARPANSA powerline standards working committee will deal with it. As I mentioned previously ARPANSA fully intends to accept as a “health based standard” ICNIRP’s 1000 mG exposure level.

Stay Tuned for more on this one….

Don

As reported in the Sydney Morning Herald:

Power lines and leukemia: study highlights risk to babies

By Julie Robotham, Medical Editor
June 3, 2005 - 10:29AM

Babies who live near high-voltage power lines are almost twice as likely as others to develop leukemia during childhood, according to the largest study ever to be conducted into the long-standing question.

But despite detailed analysis of more then 9000 childhood cases of leukemia over three decades, the Oxford University scientists who led the research say there is still insufficient evidence to establish with any certainty whether the magnetic fields around the cables actually cause some cases of the cancer.

Gerald Draper, Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the university’s Childhood Cancer Research Group, identified the birth records of children born between 1962 and 1995 who later developed cancer, and mapped the addresses listed on the children’s birth certificates against the national electricity grid in England and Wales.

The same was done for a control group of children who did not have cancer - each matched to one of the cancer patients for date of birth, sex and birth registration district.

Draper found the 9700 children with leukemia - the most common childhood cancer - were 70 per cent more likely than the others to have lived within 200 metres of a high voltage powerline. The link grew weaker the further away from power lines children lived.

Among the 20,000 children who developed cancers other than leukemia, there was no extra likelihood of having lived near overhead cables.

Despite the findings, Dr Draper was reluctant to suggest power lines might cause leukemia.

Magnetic fields from power lines were “the most obvious explanation”. But at a distance of 200 metres, these forces were typically lower than other sources of magnetism within the home, such as household electrical wiring and applicances, he said.

“We have no satisfactory explanation for our results in terms of causation, and the findings are not supported by convincing laboratory data or any accepted biological mechanism,” Dr Draper wrote in the British Medical Journal.

Brad Page, chief of the Energy Supply Association of Australia, said Australia uses the same 400, 275 and 132 kilovolt transmission cables considered in the UK research, but it was unclear whether similar proportions of Australian children lived near them.

“People should not place themselves in unreasonable proximity to these things,” Mr Page said.
More information: http://bmj.bmjjournals.com

From the British Medical Journal:

http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/330/7503/1290?ehom#TBL1

Childhood cancer in relation to distance from high voltage power lines in England and Wales: a case-control study

Gerald Draper, honorary senior research fellow1, Tim Vincent, research officer1, Mary E Kroll, statistician1, John Swanson, scientific adviser2

1 Childhood Cancer Research Group, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6HJ, 2 National Grid Transco plc, London WC2N 5EH

BMJ 2005;330:1290 (4 June), doi:10.1136/bmj.330.7503.1290

Correspondence to: G J Draper gerald.draper@ccrg.ox.ac.uk

Abstract

Objective To determine whether there is an association between distance of home address at birth from high voltage power lines and the incidence of leukaemia and other cancers in children in England and Wales.

Design Case-control study.

Setting Cancer registry and National Grid records.

Subjects Records of 29 081 children with cancer, including 9700 with leukaemia. Children were aged 0-14 years and born in England and Wales, 1962-95. Controls were individually matched for sex, approximate date of birth, and birth registration district. No active participation was required.

Main outcome measures Distance from home address at birth to the nearest high voltage overhead power line in existence at the time.

Results Compared with those who lived > 600 m from a line at birth, children who lived within 200 m had a relative risk of leukaemia of 1.69 (95% confidence interval 1.13 to 2.53); those born between 200 and 600 m had a relative risk of 1.23 (1.02 to 1.49). There was a significant (P < 0.01) trend in risk in relation to the reciprocal of distance from the line. No excess risk in relation to proximity to lines was found for other childhood cancers.

Conclusions There is an association between childhood leukaemia and proximity of home address at birth to high voltage power lines, and the apparent risk extends to a greater distance than would have been expected from previous studies. About 4% of children in England and Wales live within 600 m of high voltage lines at birth. If the association is causal, about 1% of childhood leukaemia in England and Wales would be attributable to these lines, though this estimate has considerable statistical uncertainty. There is no accepted biological mechanism to explain the epidemiological results; indeed, the relation may be due to chance or confounding.

Download the full paper at:

http://bmj.bmjjournals.com/cgi/content/full/330/7503/1290?ehom#TBL1


Source: http://www.emfacts.com/weblog/index.php?p=69

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10125604


Informant: Sylvie

New Zealand Herald - Auckland, New Zealand

An independent medical expert has found radiation readings taken near power lines in an Auckland suburb at the centre of a cancer cluster scare are 10 times ...

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/index.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10123176


Radiation levels in Auckland suburb shock expert

01.05.05

by Kirsty Wynn

An independent medical expert has found radiation readings taken near power lines in an Auckland suburb at the centre of a cancer cluster scare are 10 times higher than the levels accepted elsewhere in the world.

Dr Robin Smart has studied the relationship between high voltage lines and health and found evidence of exceedingly high radiation levels in the West Auckland suburb of Massey.

While some overseas countries have dropped the suggested level of electo-magnetic field (EMF) radiation to 0.1 microtesla, New Zealand's limit - set by the Ministry of Health - is 10,000 times higher at 100 microtesla.

Dr Smart, who conducted tests yesterday in the area with an EMF reader, found on the playing field of Lincoln Heights School the reading reached 1.0 microtesla - 10 times the accepted limit in other countries.

Two children from the same family in a nearby street, who are both pupils at the school, have leukaemia. Their mother has recently suffered two miscarriages.

One metre from the edge of the school field - directly under a high voltage powerline - the EMF rating jumped to 1.5 microtesla.

At the former home of Cameron Duncan, the young Kiwi film-maker who died last year from cancer, an EMF reading in the lounge was recorded at 1.4 microtesla. Dr Smart said he was shocked at the readings.

"The kids are playing on the field all the time, so they are getting this level of exposure all the time."

He said there was very good evidence to show that at 0.4 of a microtesla you would be looking at increased rates of childhood leukaemia.

Cameron's mother, Sharon Duncan, who has moved from the house, said she wants the matter taken seriously.

"I have always been suspicious of the power lines over the house and I am not surprised at the high reading," Mrs Duncan said.

Last year it was revealed Cameron and two friends - Charles Hetaraka and Jeffrey Thumath - were diagnosed with cancer within two months of each other.

Charles and Cameron both died in 2003, at age 17. Jeffrey is still fighting the disease.

Since then, dozens more people have come forward with their stories of cancer and other health problems.

National Radiation Laboratory scientists in Christchurch said residents living in areas with high voltage pylons had nothing to fear.

NRL scientist Martin Gledhill said there was no research finding a link between cancer and power pylons.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY


Informant: Sylvie


Cancer Cluster
http://omega.twoday.net/stories/663825/

#122 WILD NORTHWEST, March 24, 2005
A Message from Northwest Ecosystem Alliance
=====Keeping the Northwest Wild=====

Proposed Power Line Threatens the Methow Valley

Demand a transmission plan alternative that protects local wildlife and shrub-steppe lands

The Okanogan Public Utility District (PUD) has released a draft plan for upgrading electric power to the Methow Valley that includes a proposal to build a second power line. The new line would cut into the largest remaining tract of high quality shrub-steppe uplands in Okanogan County, home to mule deer, bald eagles, golden eagles, western gray squirrels, and sharp-tailed grouse. Alternative 2 of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement calls for construction of a 30-mile-long transmission line crossing 72 tributaries of the Methow River and requires a new substation spur along the valley bottom. The alternative would create new roads and development in critical winter range for Washington's largest mule deer herd and disturb the many bald eagles that use the river. And because Alternative 2 fails to improve or maintain existing lines, it could end up bankrupting the PUD with an $11 million band-aid.

There is a better way for the Methow. The DEIS's Alternative 4 calls for no new lines, proposing instead a long-overdue upgrade of the existing Loup-Loup Pass transmission line and downstream distribution. Maintaining and improving current power lines solves the Methow's needs for reliable power, while keeping intact the rich wildlife habitat of eastern Washington's shrub-steppe lands.

Comments are due on March 31, 2005. What you can do:
Use our quick action system at
http://www.ecosystem.org/action/index.html?MessageTemplateID=3
to urge the PUD to choose Alternative 4, the plan that best protects both the environment and the economy of the Methow Valley.

Or send in a letter, email, or fax on your own to:
Attn: Comments for Methow Transmission Project
Dan Boettger, Okanogan PUD
Box 912, Okanogan, WA 98840
Email: dan_b@okpud.org, Fax: 509-422-4020

Jan Flatten, USFS
1240 Second Avenue South, Okanogan, WA 98840
Email: jflatten@fs.fed.us, Fax: 509-826-3789

Additional resources: You will find a fact sheet and background information available at www.okanogan1.com/friends.

Please mail a copy of any hard-copy letters you send to George Wooten, NWEA Conservation Associate, PO Box 501, Twisp, WA 98856. And thank you all, as ever, for taking action to keep the Northwest wild!


Erin Moore
Communications Coordinator
Northwest Ecosystem Alliance
1208 Bay St., Ste. 201
Bellingham, WA 98225
360.671.9950 ext. 24