Risk of hematological malignancies associated with magnetic fields exposure from power lines: a case-control study in two municipalities of northern Italy

Abstract

BackgroundSome epidemiologic studies have suggested an association between electromagnetic field exposure induced by high voltage power lines and childhood leukemia, but null results have also been yielded and the possibility of bias due to unmeasured confounders has been suggested.MethodsWe studied this relation in the Modena and Reggio Emilia municipalities of northern Italy, identifying the corridors along high voltage power lines with calculated magnetic field intensity in the 0.1-<0.2, 0.2-<0.4, and ≥ 0.4 microTesla ranges. We identified 64 cases of newly-diagnosed hematological malignancies in children aged <14 within these municipalities from 1986 to 2007, and we sampled four matched controls for each case, collecting information on historical residence and parental socioeconomic status of these subjects.ResultsRelative risk of leukemia associated with antecedent residence in the area with exposure ≥ 0.1 microTesla was 3.2 (6.7 adjusting for socioeconomic status), but this estimate was statistically very unstable, its 95% confidence interval being 0.4-23.4, and no indication of a dose-response relation emerged. Relative risk for acute lymphoblastic leukemia was 5.3 (95% confidence interval 0.7-43.5), while there was no increased risk for the other hematological malignancies.ConclusionsThough the number of exposed children in this study was too low to allow firm conclusions, results were more suggestive of an excess risk of leukemia among exposed children than of a null relation.

Passive exposure to agricultural pesticides and risk of childhood leukemia in an Italian community

“…Using an already described study design and population (Malagoli et al, 2010; Vinceti et al, 2012; Malagoli et al, 2015), through the Italian hospital-based registry of childhood malignancies managed by the Italian Association of Paediatric Haematology and Oncology we identified all cases of CL newly diagnosed in children aged 0–14 residing in the Modena and the Reggio Emilia provinces (total population around 1,200,000) of the Northern Italy Emilia-Romagna region. For the present study, we considered CL cases diagnosed from 1998 to 2011.…”

“…Residence address was collected at time of diagnosis for cases and at the corresponding year for matched controls. To verify the residential stability of our study population, we reconstructed the lifetime residential history of a sample of children and we found that the occurrence of address changes was unlikely (only 18% during the entire first 5 years of age), ensuring that our subjects are characterized by low mobility (Malagoli et al, 2010; Vinceti et al, 2012). …”

“…Magnetic field induction in the proximity of high-voltage power lines (≥132 kilovolts) located in the territories of both provinces was calculated as described in a previous study (Malagoli et al, 2010), so as to identify three 'exposed' corridors surrounding the power lines, with increasing magnetic field intensity (0.1 ≤ B < 0.2, 0.2≤B < 0.4, B≥0.4 μT).…”

Extremely Low Frequency Electromagnetic Field (ELF-EMF) and childhood leukemia near transmission lines: a review

“…The excess mortality from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis seems to be linked with electromagnetic fields exposure above average levels and may be due to repeated incidents with electric shocks. Similar studied were conducted on the children's and their group in different municipalities of Italy [54,55], carried out a casecontrol study to find out residential exposure to magnetic fields and the development of childhood cancer in Colorado. 356 residents were identified and in-home electric and magnetic field measurements were taken under low and high power use condition.…”

Champs magnétiques 50–60 Hz et santé : quoi de neuf ?

“…Certes elles concernaient l'exposition dans la résidence de l'enfant, mais trois appréciaient le CM mesuré dans la chambre de l'enfant pendant 24 h (Schüz et al, 2001 ;Wünsch-Filho et al, 2011) ou une semaine (Kabuto et al, 2006), trois le CM calculé, en tenant compte de l'historique de charge de la ligne et d'autres caractéristiques de la ligne (Bianchi et al, 2000 ;Kroll et al, 2010 ;Malagoli et al, 2010) tandis que la dernière se basait sur la distance entre la résidence et la ligne la plus proche (Lowenthal et al, 2007). De plus, les études prenaient en compte l'exposition de la résidence au diagnostic (Bianchi et al, 2000 ;Kabuto et al, 2006 ;Wünsch-Filho et al, 2011), à la naissance (Kroll et al, 2010) ou celle dans laquelle l'enfant avait vécu le plus longtemps avant le diagnostic (Schüz et al, 2001).…”