State Begins 3 Studies on Risks of Electromagnetic Radiation

The California Public Utilities Commission said Tuesday that it has begun three research projects to determine the health risks of exposure to electromagnetic radiation from such sources as electric power lines and cellular radiotelephone towers.

Such radiation has been linked to an above-normal incidence of such cancers as leukemia, lymphoma and brain tumors in children who live near power lines or who are offspring of workers in the electric and telephone industries, according to a draft report recently prepared by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The findings do not prove that electromagnetic fields cause cancer, but they do merit further study, researchers said this week before a scientific review panel in Washington. “We’re not way out in left field if we say there may be a connection,” said Robert McGauhy, one of the document’s authors.

Critics sponsored by the electric industry also testified before the review panel Tuesday, arguing that the conclusion is based on inherently weak data. Said epidemiologist Demitrious Trichopolous of Harvard University: “I don’t believe the evidence is strong enough yet that there is a link.”

But the views of the critics were challenged repeatedly by the 17 members of the review panel, who suggested that the critics were not familiar with key studies that support such a link.

Results from the California study are not expected before 1992 at the earliest. Based on those findings, a commission spokesman said, the agency might require independent electric utilities to undertake further research and to warn their customers about the risks.

Rep. George Brown Jr. (D--Calif.), chairman of the House committee that funds research on the link between electromagnetic fields and cancer, will address a San Francisco meeting on the topic Friday.