Article publication date
January 2023
Authored by
Zagar et al.
Summary
This retrospective cohort study, conducted in Slovenia, investigated whether increased exposure to extremely low frequency (ELF) magnetic fields (MF) due to living in close proximity to high voltage powerlines was associated with an increased risk of childhood leukaemia, brain tumours and all childhood cancers. This study applied a new exposure modelling methodology, which used data from the high voltage powerlines registry to estimate ELF MF levels for the whole of Slovenia. These exposure estimates were then validated by a subset of measurements. The Slovenian cancer registry data was used to gather data on cases of leukaemia (aged 0–19), brain tumours (age 0–29), and all cancers (age 0–14) between 2005 and 2016. The distance of the permanent address of residence of the cancer cases to high voltage powerlines was used as the proxy indicator for ELF MF exposure. The exposure modelling found that 0.5% of children and adolescents in Slovenia were exposed to 0.1 µT or greater and only 0.09% were exposed to 0.4 µT or greater. The results of the study found no increased risk of leukaemia, brain tumours, or all cancers in children and adolescents with exposure of 0.1 µT or greater. The authors concluded that the risk of cancer for children and adolescents living near high voltage powerlines does not differ from the average risk in the general population.
Link to
Published in
Radiology and Oncology
Commentary by APRANSA
Although this study found no association, some epidemiological studies observing outcomes from exposure to ELF MF greater than 0.3 or 0.4 µT have shown an association with childhood leukaemia (SCENIHR 2015). However, this association has not been established by consistent scientific evidence. The epidemiological evidence for this association is weakened by various methodological problems such as potential selection bias, misclassification and confounding. Furthermore, it is not supported by laboratory or animal studies and no credible theoretical mechanism has been proposed on how ELF MF could cause cancer. This study used enhanced exposure assessment methods supported by residential magnetic field measurements and the results are supported by a recent meta-analysis by Crespi et al (2019), which found ELF MF above 0.4 µT was not associated with childhood leukaemia. Overall, the scientific evidence does not establish that exposure to ELF EMF from powerlines is a hazard to human health.
