“Dirty Power” Linked to Cancers in California School
Fress release from Janet Jewton JNewton@ emrpolicy.org
MARSHFIELD, VT–(Marketwire – June 3, 2008) – A new study to be published in the July 2008 issue of the American Journal of Industrial Medicine reveals that “dirty power” may be the culprit in increased cancer rates. According to study co-author Samuel Milham, MD, Ramazzini Awardee and leading expert in occupational hazards, “dirty power” is the likely cause of an unusual cancer cluster at La Quinta Middle School (LQMS) in California.
“Dirty power” is high-frequency voltage transients (HFVTs) that travel along power lines and building wiring. Milham and co-author electronics engineer Lloyd Morgan found that teachers who had the greatest exposure to HFVTs on the job also had the highest cancer incidence. “The trend of more cancer with more exposure and longer employment is highly significant,” Milham said.
The study found that LQMS teachers had close to three times the expected number of cancer cases over a 17-year period. Milham estimates the odds against such a cluster are 10,000-to-one. The incidence of malignant melanoma was ten times higher than expected, as were cancers of the thyroid and uterus.
“That workers have high incidence rates of a number of cancers both in the LQMS study and in studies of 270,000 California school employees and in office workers worldwide suggests that the cancer excess may not be limited to one job setting or cancer type and that EMFS may be a general human carcinogen,” says Milham. “Ionizing radiation also increases incidence of a number of different cancers. The CDC protocol for cancer cluster investigation calls for studying only one type of cancer.”
“Latency (time from exposure to cancer development) must also be rethought. Some LQMS teachers developed melanomas and thyroid cancers within a few years of exposure. Most solid tumors have latencies over 10 years. Melanomas and thyroid cancers are also appearing in LQMS students exposed for only three years, again with short latencies,” Milham adds.
“This exposure and risk is probably a general one for office workers and anyone exposed to HFVTs riding on building wiring. Teachers just happen to be a large occupation with a defined job title,” Milham points out.
“Dirty electricity” has been identified as a ubiquitous power quality issue by utilities and the electronics industry. It is generated by electronic equipment such as computers, photocopiers, plasma TVs, energy efficient lighting, as well as arcing on electrical conductors. Industry’s concern is for the damage “dirty electricity” does to sensitive electronic equipment, hence the need for computer surge suppressors.
“We believe this is a seminal paper capable of changing the very paradigms within the EMF science world. We report HFVT exposure using a new measurement meter that demonstrated a statistically strong, increased incidence and a dose-response relationship for a number of different cancers,” Morgan asserts.
“If our findings are substantiated, HFVTs are a new and important EMF exposure metric and a possible universal human carcinogen similar to ionizing radiation,” Milham and Morgan conclude.
The EMR Policy Institute: Advancing Sound Public Policy on the Use of Electromagnetic Radiation (EMR)