Schools Lack Electromagnetic Monitoring Plan : Safety: The discovery of high EMF levels in a Sherman Oaks kindergarten class reveals a void in testing, preventive measures.

The recent discovery of high electromagnetic fields in a Sherman Oaks kindergarten class exposed the lack of a concerted program to detect EMF hot spots in city schools.

EMF measurements were taken at Dixie Canyon Avenue Elementary School because of a parent’s concern about the placement of an electric transformer, not due to the vigilance of school authorities. As the episode revealed, testing for elevated EMFs--linked by some studies to a small increased risk of cancer--usually is limited to schools with worried parents or staff.

This passive approach--which one critic called a “squeaky wheel” policy--has not produced much information about EMF levels in local schools. In fact, only nine of more than 600 schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District have had EMF measurements, district records show.

More testing is likely following the Dixie Canyon flap, which involved a transformer installed inches from the exterior wall of a bungalow classroom. After a parent voiced concern, district safety officials sought measurements by the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, which obtained a high reading of 107 milligauss at the teacher’s desk. Typical readings in homes and offices are less than 2 milligauss.

Parents were particularly upset because the district installed the transformer in 1991--long after the EMF controversy surfaced.

“This is the only place on a three-acre campus where they could put this thing,” Jeffrey Fried, the parent who first raised the issue, said sarcastically. “While the jury’s out, they’re just going to ignore all the statistical evidence. . . . When in doubt, put it (the transformer) seven inches away from the children.”

District officials, who have decided to relocate the transformer at a cost of about $100,000, say similar situations could exist on up to 100 other campuses where transformers have been added since 1989 to serve portable classrooms and new air conditioning systems. Rather than install the transformers as far as possible from classrooms, officials said they typically put them nearby to save money and space.

The state Department of Education since 1988 has required minimum setbacks from power lines for new schools and portable classrooms, but the standard does not mention other electrical installations.

Diane Doi of the district’s environmental health and safety branch said the risk of transformers creating higher EMF exposures “didn’t register. . . . The focus with EMFs . . . was always with the power transmission lines.”

Electric and magnetic fields are invisible lines of force that radiate outward from every electrical device, penetrating nearly everything around them--including the human body. If EMFs are dangerous, distance is the best defense because their strength falls rapidly with distance from the source.

Several studies have found a small increased risk of cancer in children living near high-current power lines, while other EMF research has found elevated cancer rates among workers in electrical professions, such as utility linemen and film projectionists. A smaller number of studies found no connection between EMFs and cancer, and experts generally say a causal link has not been proved.

Recognizing that a definitive conclusion may be years away, some authorities have called for voluntary adoption of no-cost and low-cost means to reduce exposures, in case EMFs ultimately are proven to be harmful.

Such “prudent avoidance” measures, as they are sometimes called, can be as simple as fencing off part of a playground or moving workstations farther from a source of EMFs.

In a letter last week to L.A. Unified officials, state health official Dr. Raymond R. Neutra, the state’s point man on the EMF issue, wrote: “The weight of evidence has not yet reached the point where one can set a safety standard or mandate expensive retrofits.”

However, Neutra wrote: “Our department does believe that there is sufficient evidence to warrant no-cost or low-cost measures to avoid sources of EMF when possible.”

But taking such precautions means knowing first where elevated fields exist. And in Los Angeles and many other areas, this data exists for a mere handful of schools.

As a free service to customers, a number of utilities, including the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, and Southern California Edison Co., by request take EMF readings in homes, offices and schools. But while the DWP has surveyed nearly 600 homes and offices during the past two years, it has only been asked to test nine schools.

And while Edison, the nation’s second largest utility, has measured nearly 3,900 sites during the past two years, fewer than 100 of these have been schools, said Mark Judy, manager of Edison’s EMF education center.

Yet many experts believe there are compelling reasons why such testing should be focused on schools. For one thing, some schools deliberately were built near power lines or other electric installations to take advantage of cheaper land costs. And by bringing large numbers of children and adults together in one place, schools concentrate any risks that may exist.

“Schools have a special status, because they’re public institutions to which people entrust their kids,” said Neutra of the state Department of Health Services.

“If there is an EMF problem, the place you want to address it first is schools,” said Louis Slesin, publisher of Microwave News, a newsletter that chronicles the EMF debate.

“If you should discover down the road that this is a credible risk, you know where the hot spots are, you’ve done your homework,” Slesin said.

State health and education officials say a mandate to test all schools is unlikely any time soon--particularly since there is no consensus on what EMF levels would be cause for concern.

Until there is more “conclusive information” on the health risks, “you’re probably not going to see any kind of statewide mandate for measuring exposure,” said Duwayne Brooks, an assistant superintendent of the state Department of Education and member of a state task force on EMF in schools.

Testing “will probably continue to be on a public response mode, instead of a blanket, ‘everybody must do it,’ ” Brooks said.

Although they are veterans of emotionally charged health scares involving asbestos, lead and radon, school safety officials say they are floundering for lack of standards on EMF exposure.

“We really want a regulatory agency to help us out in this situation,” said Susie Wong, director of L.A. Unified’s environmental health and safety branch. “They need to tell us what . . . we need to do. We need some guidelines. We can’t act by ourselves.”

Several testing initiatives are expected, however, in the coming months. In response to the Dixie Canyon episode, district officials said they will review building plans to pinpoint other campuses where transformers near classrooms may be causing heightened exposures.

In a separate study, DWP officials are planning to take EMF measurements at 41 schools that are near transmission lines and substations--although the readings will be confined to school property lines.

The DWP, Edison and other utilities are also involved in a statewide effort to chart the distance of all public and private schools to the nearest utility installations. In subsequent phases of the study, officials will take EMF readings at hundreds of campuses and use consultants to devise strategies to reduce exposures from external and on-campus sources.

Money for the latter phases of the research would come from a $5.6-million EMF research fund established by California utilities under an order last November from the state Public Utilities Commission.