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November 2002, Volume 87, Number 11, Pages 1257-1266 |
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Epidemiology |
| Exposure to power frequency
electric fields and the risk of childhood cancer in the UK |
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| J Skinner1, T J Mee2,
R P Blackwell2, M P Maslanyj2,
J Simpson3, S G Allen2,
N E Day1,a and United Kingdom
Childhood Cancer Study Investigators writing committee |
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| 1Strangeways Research Laboratory,
University of Cambridge, Wort's Causeway, Cambridge CB1 8RN, UK
2National Radiological Protection
Board, Chilton, Oxfordshire OX11 0RQ, UK
3Leukaemia Fund Research Centre for
Clinical Epidemiology, University of Leeds, 30 Hyde Terrace, Leeds
LS2 9LN, UK |
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| Correspondence to: Professor N Day,
Strangeways Research Laboratory, University of Cambridge, Wort's
Causeway, Cambridge CB1 8RN, UK; E-mail:
nick.day@srl.cam.ac.uk |
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| aA list of principal investigators
can be found in the Acknowledgements section. A complete list of
investigators is to be found in: The United Kingdom Childhood Cancer
Study: objectives, material, and methods. Br J Cancer 82(2):
1073-1102 |
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Abstract |
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The United Kingdom Childhood Cancer Study, a population-based
case-control study covering the whole of
Great Britain, incorporated a pilot study measuring electric fields.
Measurements were made in the homes of 473 children who were
diagnosed with a malignant neoplasm between 1992 and 1996 and who
were aged 0-14 at diagnosis, together
with 453 controls matched on age, sex and geographical location.
Exposure assessments comprised resultant spot measurements in the
child's bedroom and the family living-room. Temporal stability of
bedroom fields was investigated through continuous logging of the
48-h vertical component at the child's bedside supported by repeat
spot measurements. The principal exposure metric used was the mean
of the pillow and bed centre measurements. For the 273 cases and 276
controls with fully validated measures, comparing those with a
measured electric field exposure  20
V m-1 to those in a reference
category of exposure <10 V m-1,
odds ratios of 1.31 (95% confidence interval 0.68-2.54)
for acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, 1.32 (95% confidence interval
0.73-2.39) for total leukaemia, 2.12 (95%
confidence interval 0.78-5.78) for
central nervous system cancers and 1.26 (95% confidence interval
0.77-2.07) for all malignancies were
obtained. When considering the 426 cases and 419 controls with no
invalid measures, the corresponding odds ratios were 0.86 (95%
confidence interval 0.49-1.51) for acute
lymphoblastic leukaemia, 0.93 (95% confidence interval 0.56-1.54)
for total leukaemia, 1.43 (95% confidence interval 0.68-3.02)
for central nervous system cancers and 0.90 (95% confidence interval
0.59-1.35) for all malignancies. With
exposure modelled as a continuous variable, odds ratios for an
increase in the principal metric of 10 V m-1
were close to unity for all disease categories, never differing
significantly from one.
British Journal of Cancer (2002) 87, 1257-1266.
doi:10.1038/sj.bjc.6600602
www.bjcancer.com
Ó 2002
Cancer Research UK |
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Keywords |
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| electric fields; childhood cancer; leukaemia |
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| Received 30 May 2002; revised 16
August 2002; accepted 30 August 2002 |
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| 18
November 2002, Volume 87, Number 11, Pages 1257-1266 |
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