TITLE:
Childhood Leukemia Not Linked with ELF Magnetic Fields
AUTHORS:
Norbert Leitgeb
KEYWORDS:
Health Risk Assessment, Long-Term Exposure, Cancer, Safety, Power Line
JOURNAL NAME:
Journal of Electromagnetic Analysis and Applications,
Vol.6 No.7,
June
25,
2014
ABSTRACT:
The
discussion whether extremely low frequency (ELF) magnetic fields (MF) are
causally linked with childhood leukemia is ongoing for almost four decades.
Results of epidemiologic studies have indicated such an association might exist
and led to IARC’s classification of ELF MF as possibly carcinogenic (class 2B).
Although in the meanwhile many epidemiologic studies and meta-analyses of
selected studies are available, this did not change the situation. By a new
approach of pooling all epidemiologic data, this paper shows that it is
possible to come to a convincing conclusion which explains controversial
results and reports dose-response relationship, and provides answers to
striking facts such as that epidemiologic results on childhood leukemia are
independent from field source or exposure metric of whatever kind with no
specific favorite. The analysis revealed that the assumption of a causal link
between ELF MF exposure and childhood leukemia is no longer plausible and hence
that ELF MF’s classification as possibly carcinogenic needs revision.