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Childhood leukemia, electric and magnetic fields, and temporal trends
Author(s) -
Kheifets Leeka,
Swanson John,
Greenland Sander
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
bioelectromagnetics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.435
H-Index - 81
eISSN - 1521-186X
pISSN - 0197-8462
DOI - 10.1002/bem.20249
Subject(s) - bioelectromagnetics , childhood leukemia , childhood leukaemia , leukemia , incidence (geometry) , environmental health , medicine , immunology , pediatrics , magnetic field , physics , lymphoblastic leukemia , quantum mechanics , optics
During the past 25 years concern has been raised about the possible health effects of extremely low frequency (ELF) electric and magnetic fields (EMFs), particularly regarding childhood leukemia. Comparison of changes in electricity consumption (a surrogate for exposure) to changes in childhood‐leukemia rates, known as ecologic correlation, have been used to argue both for and against the association between magnetic fields and childhood leukemia. In this paper we explore what can be learned from such an ecologic approach. We first examine separately the evidence on trends in exposure to EMFs and on trends in leukemia rates, and then compare the two. Both incidence rates and exposures have increased, but there are so many approximations and assumptions involved in connecting the two trends that we cannot regard the ecologic evidence as providing any meaningful evidence for or against a causal link. Bioelectromagnetics 27:545–552, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.