EMFs: Position Statements

ELECTRIC AND MAGNETIC FIELDS AT MAINS FREQUENCY

1. Electric and magnetic fields (EMFs) are produced by all electrical installations and equipment such as domestic appliances, overhead lines, underground cables and many transport systems. There is some public concern about a possible connection between these fields and health. The Energy Networks Association and its member companies take any suggestion of a risk to health seriously and are fully committed to the health, safety and welfare of the public and employees.

2. Over the last twenty years, major research programmes throughout the world have explored whether EMFs have an adverse impact on health. Although the balance of the evidence is against a link between ill health and EMFs, some studies have suggested that exposure to EMFs may be harmful to health. International bodies such as the World Health Organization and the International Agency for Research on Cancer and, in the United Kingdom, the Radiation Protection Division of the Health Protection Agency (RDP) have investigated this issue and have concluded that there is no established cause-and-effect link between EMFs and ill health. They have, however, recognised that the possibility cannot be ruled out.

3. The RDP is the UK body with statutory responsibility for advising on EMFs. ENA member companies carry out their activities in accordance with RDP guidance.

4. The ENA and its member companies are committed to responsible behaviour and recognise that precautionary approaches are part of European and UK environmental policy. However, we believe that present scientific evidence does not justify any change either in the electricity industry's operating practices, which are in line with current guidance, or in the everyday utilisation of electricity by our customers. Nevertheless, we keep this issue under review and look to the RDP and Government for advice.

5. While there remains any uncertainty over the EMF and health issue, ENA member companies will continue to support and contribute to the funding of credible research into EMFs. This includes an independent trust which supports biological research.

6. We will continue to monitor closely scientific research, overseas developments and major reviews of scientific, medical and engineering research concerned with electric and magnetic fields.

7. We are committed to providing members of the public, the industry's employees and customers with full and up to date information about EMFs and health.

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ELECTRIC FIELDS AND IONS

Power lines produce both electric and magnetic fields. Scientists who have sought to investigate the question of whether power lines (or more generally the use of electricity in society) cause harm to health have tended to concentrate on the magnetic fields that they produce. This is because sound scientific reasons (partly to do with the fact that magnetic fields can penetrate buildings whereas electric fields hardly do so at all) suggest that if there is an effect at all, it is more likely to be caused by magnetic rather than electric fields.

Whilst it is unfortunately not possible to have total certainty, the balance of the considerable body of evidence that has been accumulated over the last two decades clearly suggests that magnetic fields do not cause cancer or any other disease. Recently, there have been suggestions that attention should focus more appropriately on electric fields. Electric fields have been investigated less than magnetic fields, but there is still a substantial body of evidence relating to them.

In particular, seven different epidemiological studies have specifically looked for associations between electric fields and childhood cancer, and all but one of them found no evidence for any association. There have also been several studies of adult cancers and over twenty laboratory studies of electric fields, the majority failing to find any effects. A review article by two respected American professors concluded:

'The overall case that power-frequency electric fields are causally linked to human cancer is even weaker than that for magnetic fields and can reasonably be called non-existent.'

A group led by Professor Denis Henshaw at Bristol University published papers in 1996 and again in 1999 suggesting various possible mechanisms whereby high-voltage power lines might produce health effects on people nearby through the electric fields they produce. One suggestion is that the high electric fields very close to some power lines increase the number of particles of pollutants from the air which are deposited on the skin. Another is that the small charged particles produced by some lines (known as corona ions) and blown away by the wind increase the number of particles of airborne pollutants which, when breathed in, are deposited in the airways.

These suggestions have been examined carefully by the electricity industry, by the Government's independent adviser, the RDP, and by other scientists in various countries. The RDP's view is that:

'… there is no convincing evidence that the observed physical phenomenon can have any effect on childhood cancer.'

The broad conclusions of the experiments performed by the Bristol group that show the effect of the power lines on particles in the air are not disputed. However, these experiments do not demonstrate any health risk, and careful scrutiny of the physics involved suggests that the effects do not in fact have any material consequence for human health. It is also worth noting that power lines are far from being the only source of ions; a range of other items, such as, car exhausts, gas cookers, and waterfalls also produce large quantities of ions. The substantial body of existing scientific evidence suggests that neither power lines nor the electric or magnetic fields they produce are a cause of cancer.

However, any suggestion of a health risk, however weak, needs to be taken seriously. For that reason, the electricity industry is continuing its long-established policy of supporting high-quality, independent research. In particular, in the UK, there is a study of high-voltage power lines and childhood cancer already underway at Oxford University, and a similar study of adult cancers is being proposed to the Department of Health.

The industry supports both these studies, is making available the data on power lines they need, and is encouraging both studies to extend their scope to test the specific suggestions of Professor Henshaw. In the meantime, however, the consensus of worldwide scientific opinion is that neither power lines nor the fields they produce have been shown to be a cause of cancer.