BMJ  2005;331:634 (17 September), doi:10.1136/bmj.331.7517.634

Letter

Childhood cancer and power lines

What do the data mean?

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Editor—Draper et al used distance of mother's home from high voltage overhead transmission lines (predominantly 275 kV and 400 kV) at the time of her child's birth as a proxy for her child's subsequent exposure to power-frequency magnetic fields (reviewed by Ahlbom et al).^{1 2} As they acknowledge, this is a crude estimate since, in contrast to other reports,² no household measurements were taken, no data on more prevalent low voltage distribution sources were collected, no information from other time points in the child's life was obtained, variations during the 33 years period studied were not considered, and no validatory home visits were carried out. A recent report into residential exposures to magnetic fields in the United Kingdom estimated that proximity to high voltage lines, 275 kV and above, explained only 9% of those with measurements 0.2 microtesla (µT).³

National data on the distribution of houses in relation to high voltage . . . [Full text of this article]

Institute of Public Health, Strangeways Research Laboratory, Cambridge CB1 8RN nick.day@srl.cam.ac.uk

Academic Unit of Paediatric Oncology, Christie Hospital and Central Manchester and Manchester Children's University Hospitals NHS Trusts, Manchester M20 4BX

Paediatric Epidemiology Group, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9LN

Epidemiology and Genetics Unit, Department of Health Sciences, University of York, York YO10 5DD

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