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Residential proximity to electricity transmission and distribution equipment and risk of childhood leukemia, childhood lymphoma, and childhood nervous system tumors: systematic review, evaluation, and meta-analysis

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Abstract

In 1979, Wertheimer and Leeper reported an increased risk of cancer mortality among children living near ‘electrical wiring configurations’, suggestive of high current flow. Since then, numerous, often inconclusively small, investigations with conflicting results have studied the possible asociation between exposure to electric and magnetic fields (EMF) and health effects. The high prevalence of exposure to EMF has drawn attention to the issue of carcinogenesis. We report here the results of a meta-analysis of 13 epidemiologic studies of residential proximity to electricity transmission and distribution equipment and risk of childhood leukemia, lymphoma, and nervous system tumors. The combined relative risks for leukemia, lymphoma, and nervous system tumors are 1.49 (95 percent confidence interval [CI]=1.11–2.00); 1.58 (CI=0.91–2.76); and 1.89 (CI=1.34–2.67) respectively. The reports of the primary studies were evaluated for epidemiologic quality and adequacy of exposure assessment. We found no statistically significant relation between combined relative risk estimates and 15 indicators of epidemiologic quality. Assessment of EMF exposure in the primary studies was found to be imperfect and imprecise. Additional high quality epidemiologic research, incorporating comprehensive assessments of EMF exposure collected concurrently with surrogate measures of exposure, is needed to confirm these results.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Technology Assessment Group, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

    Edward P. Washburn &  Thomas C. Chalmers

  2. Program Evaluation and Methodology Division, US General Accounting Office, Washington, DC, USA

    Michele J. Orza

  3. the Center for Clinical Evaluation and Biostatistics, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, PA, USA

    Jesse A. Berlin

  4. the Department of Comminity Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, NY, USA

    William J. Nicholson &  Andrew C. Todd

  5. Toxicology Program, University of Maryland at Baltimore, MD, USA

    Thomas C. Chalmers

  6. the Division of Environmental and Occupational Health, Emory University School of Public Health, Atlanta, CA, USA

    Thomas C. Chalmers

  7. University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, USA

    Thomas C. Chalmers

Authors
  1. Edward P. Washburn
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  2. Michele J. Orza
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  3. Jesse A. Berlin
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  4. William J. Nicholson
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  5. Andrew C. Todd
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  6. Howard Frumkin
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  7. Thomas C. Chalmers
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at the time of this research

This project was supported by a grant from the US National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and by a grant from the Agency for Health Care Policy Research.

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Washburn, E.P., Orza, M.J., Berlin, J.A. et al. Residential proximity to electricity transmission and distribution equipment and risk of childhood leukemia, childhood lymphoma, and childhood nervous system tumors: systematic review, evaluation, and meta-analysis. Cancer Causes Control 5, 299–309 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01804980

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01804980

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