Incidence of cancer in persons with occupational exposure to electromagnetic fields in Denmark.

Abstract

Several studies suggest that work in electrical occupations is associated with an increased risk of cancer, mainly leukaemia and brain tumours. These studies may, however, not be representative if there is a publication bias where mainly positive results are reported. To study an unselected population the incidence of cancer was followed up over a 17 year period

Cancer in electrical workers: an analysis of cancer registrations in England, 1981-87

“…Four Demers et al, 1991;Floderus et al, 1993;Guenel et al, 1993;London et al, 1994;Loomis et al, 1994;Theriault et al, 1994;Savitz and Loomis, 1995). Support is provided here for two of these cancers: leukaemia and brain, where significant excesses of around 20% were observed.…”

Industrialization, electromagnetic fields, and breast cancer risk.

“…Although EMF exposure was not a primary focus of this study, all women were asked about their use of electric blankets. Gammon et al (33) (34)(35)(36) (Table 3). Two of the studies were large cohorts based in England and Denmark with limited exposure assessment (exposure was based on job titles alone) (35,36 Of all the studies of EMF exposure and female breast cancer, case-control studies of occupational exposure are the most suggestive.…”

“…Gammon et al (33) (34)(35)(36) (Table 3). Two of the studies were large cohorts based in England and Denmark with limited exposure assessment (exposure was based on job titles alone) (35,36 Of all the studies of EMF exposure and female breast cancer, case-control studies of occupational exposure are the most suggestive. Although it could be argued that cohort studies conducted to date did not have sufficient power, case-control studies have problems of their own: the most severe problem is the lack of even rudimentary exposure assessment.…”

“…Male Breast Cancer Table 4 shows the results from both cohort and case-control studies of EMF and male breast cancer (35,36,(42)(43)(44)(45)(46)(47)(48)(49)(50)(51). Several of the large occupational studies of EMF and adult cancer in males could not be included because there were insufficient details and too few cases (52-61).…”

Childhood acute leukaemia and residential 16.7 Hz magnetic fields in Germany

“…All rail lines were included in the present study, no matter whether electrified or not. Studies in Switzerland (Balli-Antunes et al, 1990), Sweden (Floderus et al, 1993;Alfredsson et al, 1996), Denmark (Guenel et al, 1993) and Norway (Tynes et al, 1994) examined the cancer incidence or mortality among railway workers, but the number of exposed cases was small and the evidence for an increased leukaemia risk among engine drivers or conductors was inconsistent. While in these occupational studies the magnetic field exposure was comparably high (an average of about 20 µT was reported by Tynes et al (1994) but intermittent, the young children in our study were exposed to much lower magnetic field levels (Schüz et al, 2000), but this exposure was more or less continuous.…”