TV REVIEW : ‘Fear’ Questions Cancer From Power Lines

Apparently inspired by Mark Twain’s adage that there are lies, damned lies and statistics, tonight’s “Frontline” report, “Currents of Fear,” develops the argument that public concerns about the carcinogenic threats of electromagnetic fields (EMFs) are wildly exaggerated.

How persuasively it delivers that argument is another question.

At first, “Currents of Fear” appears to be another in “Frontline’s” many populist exposes of power abused--in this case, electric power. Families in Omaha, Neb., neighborhoods, alarmed by a seeming flurry of cancer cases among local children, are seen pressing health officials for explanations. The neighbors, led by Julie Larm, suspect that large power lines crisscrossing the area are the culprits.

Searching for definitive proof that such lines, which emit oscillating magnetic fields, directly cause cancer is not easy. Despite a raft of studies that raise questions about EMFs’ effects on the body’s genetic structure, “Currents of Fear” presents a parade of scientists who are harshly critical of any suggestions of EMFs-cancer links. Rather than an environmental investigation, this report becomes a veritable lecture on how statistics can be manipulated to raise unwarranted concerns.

Of course, statistics--spun in the right direction--can be used to manipulate anything, including the corporate interests of electrical power companies. What “Currents of Fear” erroneously suggests is that those who dismiss the cancer link are, with very few exceptions, worthy scientists, while those who believe in links are either scared housewives or non-scientists such as New Yorker journalist Paul Brodeur.

And although “Currents of Fear” reports on recent federally funded lab studies that couldn’t show a cancer link, other studies and scientists have--yet they are missing here. They include medical doctor and author Robert O. Becker, biophysicist Andrew Marino and cancer researcher Jerry Phillips, all of whom have argued that EMF-cancer links are to be taken seriously.

The only scientific voice on Brodeur’s side here is Dr. David Carpenter, who himself wavers on the linkage issue.

It may be that, at the end of the day, the link is illusory. But the imbalance of the scientific scales here is unbecoming of “Frontline.” When Julie Larm decries a cover-up about the issue, we may be looking at it.

* “Currents of Fear” airs at 9 tonight on KCET-TV Channel 28.