KILLING FIELDS
                    by: Alasdair Philips, M.I.Agr.E.
                   

     It is only about 100 years since electricity generation started,
70 years since public radio transmissions and 50 years since radar was
first used.  In the UK, the quantity of power generated has increased
approximately 90-fold since 1920.  Indeed, it is really only since the
1950's that we began to surround ourselves with significant amounts of
electromagnetic energy.

     When radar was first introduced in World War II, it was such an
important factor in the Allied victory that few raised questions of its
biological safety; safety standards were set high enoug to allow the 
military virtually unrestricted use of microwave and high-frequency
radiation.  American scientific reports from the time suggesting that 
microwave radiation might cause leukaemia, cataracts, brain tumours and
heart disease were ignored.

     When maximum exposure levels were set in the 1950s, they were mainly
based on how much external power could be dissipated on the surface of
the human body without causing a significant rise in body temperature.

     The validity of these and subsequent safety standards across the
electromagnetic spectrum is now being challenged, both within the 
scientific community and, increasingly, in the courts.  This has been
brough about by the considerable number of research reports linking 
low-level alternating electric and magnetic fields with a variety of 
serious adverse health effects.

     Particularly worrying are the reports about the effects of 50Hz
and 60Hz power-line fields, low-frequency pulsed radar systems and
high-power ELF communication systems.

     Here is a selection of some of the report conclusions.

     - The risk of dying from acute myeloid leukaemia is increased by
5.2 times if you work in an electrical occupation especially if you are
a telecommunication engineer or radio amateur. 1

     - Service personnel exposed to non-ionizing radiation when compared 
with their unexposed colleagues were almost fourteen times as likely
to develop cancer of the blood-forming organs and lymphatic tissue and 
more than eight times as likely to develop thyroid tumours; younger personnel
between 20 and 29 had a 1100% greater risk of being stricken with cancer. 2

     - 10 to 15% of all childhood cancer cases might be attributable to 
power-frequency fields found in their homes. 3  For children who live 
close to high-current wires the risk increases to more than five times
the risk of those who do not. 4  The incidence of childhood cancer (5)
more than doubles in homes where the average 60Hz magnetic field
strength is over 300nT.

     - Significantly more miscariages are reported by electric blanket
and heated water-bed users during winter months. 6

     - 60Hz power-line fields produce a large suppression of
T-lymphocyte cells to mark and kill cancer cells. 7

     - 100mT 45Hz magnetic-field exposure showed a rapid build-up of
serum triglycerides, an accepted warning of likely heart problems. 8

     - 100% increase in miscarriages was found when VDU operators were
compared with non-working pregnant women in a sample of 1593 women. 9

     - A Canadian pwer utility has made an unprecedented offer to buy
a home within 50m of a 230kV power line right-of-way (ROW).  The UK
does not even acknowledge the need for ROW's and still allows houses
to be positioned directly under high-voltage distribution cables, 
subject to nominal clearance.  10

     - Clinical depression and suicides were closely linked with
living near UK power lines.  11

Note:
1 - Savitz, D.A. & Calle, E.E. (1987) Leukemia and occupational
exposure to electromagnetic fields: a review of epidemiological 
surveys, Journal of Occupational Medicine, 29 pp47-51

2 - Szmigielski, S. et al. Centre for Radiobiology and Radioprotection,
Warsaw.  :immunologic and cancer-related aspects of exposure to low
level microwave and radiofrequency fields: in Marion, A. (Ed),
198, `Modern Bioelectricity', Marcell Decker, N.Y., pp861-925

3 - New Yor State Power Lines Project, 1987, N.Y. State Dept. of Health

4 - Savitz, D.A., (1988) `Childhood cancer and electromagnetic field
exposure' American Journal of Epidemiology, 128, pp21-38

5 - Tomenius, L. (1986) `50Hz electromagnetic environment and the
incidence of childhood tumours in Stockholm County'. 
Bioelectromagnetics, 7, pp191-207

6 - Wertheimer, N. & Leeper, E., (1986), `Possible effects of electric
blankets and heated water beds on fetal development'. 
Biolelectromagnetics, 7, pp13-22

7 - Adey,$. & Lyle, C.B., in Biolelectromagnetics, 1983

8 - Beischer, D.E., Grissett, J.D., and Mitchell, R. E. (1973),
`Exposure of Man to Magnetic Fields Alternating at Extremely Low
Frequency' Bureau of Medicine and Surgeyr, Project 
No. MF51.524.015-0013BEOX, Naval Aerospace Medical Research Laboratory,
Pensacola, Florida, USA.  This report has since been classified and is
no longer listed as available.

9 - Goldhaber, D., Polen, M. and Hiat, R. (1988) `Risk of miscarriage
and birth defects among women who use video display terminals during
pregnancy.  American Journal Industrial Medicine, 13, pp695-706.

10 - Microwave News, Vol.IX, No.3, May/June 1989

11 - Perry,F.S et al (1981), `Environmental power-frequency magnetic
and suicide', Health Physics, 44, pp267-277.