Skip to main content
PMC home page
Occupational and Environmental Medicine logoLink to Occupational and Environmental Medicine
. 1997 Jan;54(1):7–13. doi: 10.1136/oem.54.1.7

Occupational exposure to magnetic fields in relation to mortality from brain cancer among electricity generation and transmission workers.

J M Harrington 1, D I McBride 1, T Sorahan 1, G M Paddle 1, M van Tongeren 1
PMCID: PMC1128628  PMID: 9072027

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether the risks of mortality from brain cancer are related to occupational exposure to magnetic fields. METHODS: A total of 112 cases of primary brain cancer (1972-91) were identified from a cohort of 84,018 male and female employees of the (then) Central Electricity Generating Board and its privatised successor companies. Individual cumulative occupational exposures to magnetic fields were estimated by linking available computerised job history data with magnetic field measurements collected over 675 person-workshifts. Estimated exposure histories of the case workers were compared with those of 654 control workers drawn from the cohort (nested case-control study), by means of conditional logistic regression. RESULTS: For exposure assessments based on arithmetic means, the risk of mortality from brain cancer for subjects with an estimated cumulative exposure to magnetic fields of 5.4-13.4 microT.y v subjects with lower exposures (0.0-5.3 microT.y) was 1.04 (95% confidence interval (95% CI) 0.60 to 1.80). The corresponding relative risk in subjects with higher exposures (> or = 13.5 microT.y) was 0.95 (95% CI 0.54 to 1.69). There was no indication of a positive trend for cumulative exposure and risk of mortality from brain cancer either when the analysis used exposure assessments based on geometric means or when the analysis was restricted to exposures received within five years of the case diagnosis (or corresponding period for controls). CONCLUSIONS: Although the exposure categorisation was based solely on recent observations, the study findings do not support the hypothesis that the risk of brain cancer is associated with occupational exposure to magnetic fields.

Full text

PDF
11

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Delpizzo V., Borghesi J. L. Exposure measurement errors, risk estimate and statistical power in case-control studies using dichotomous analysis of a continuous exposure variable. Int J Epidemiol. 1995 Aug;24(4):851–862. doi: 10.1093/ije/24.4.851. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Floderus B., Persson T., Stenlund C., Wennberg A., Ost A., Knave B. Occupational exposure to electromagnetic fields in relation to leukemia and brain tumors: a case-control study in Sweden. Cancer Causes Control. 1993 Sep;4(5):465–476. doi: 10.1007/BF00050866. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Floderus B., Törnqvist S., Stenlund C. Incidence of selected cancers in Swedish railway workers, 1961-79. Cancer Causes Control. 1994 Mar;5(2):189–194. doi: 10.1007/BF01830265. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Kheifets L. I., Afifi A. A., Buffler P. A., Zhang Z. W. Occupational electric and magnetic field exposure and brain cancer: a meta-analysis. J Occup Environ Med. 1995 Dec;37(12):1327–1341. doi: 10.1097/00043764-199512000-00002. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Kromhout H., Loomis D. P., Mihlan G. J., Peipins L. A., Kleckner R. C., Iriye R., Savitz D. A. Assessment and grouping of occupational magnetic field exposure in five electric utility companies. Scand J Work Environ Health. 1995 Feb;21(1):43–50. doi: 10.5271/sjweh.7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Lin R. S., Dischinger P. C., Conde J., Farrell K. P. Occupational exposure to electromagnetic fields and the occurrence of brain tumors. An analysis of possible associations. J Occup Med. 1985 Jun;27(6):413–419. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Milham S., Jr Mortality from leukemia in workers exposed to electrical and magnetic fields. N Engl J Med. 1982 Jul 22;307(4):249–249. doi: 10.1056/nejm198207223070412. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Sahl J. D., Kelsh M. A., Greenland S. Cohort and nested case-control studies of hematopoietic cancers and brain cancer among electric utility workers. Epidemiology. 1993 Mar;4(2):104–114. doi: 10.1097/00001648-199303000-00005. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Savitz D. A., Loomis D. P. Magnetic field exposure in relation to leukemia and brain cancer mortality among electric utility workers. Am J Epidemiol. 1995 Jan 15;141(2):123–134. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a117400. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Savitz D. A., Pearce N., Poole C. Update on methodological issues in the epidemiology of electromagnetic fields and cancer. Epidemiol Rev. 1993;15(2):558–566. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.epirev.a036134. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Speers M. A., Dobbins J. G., Miller V. S. Occupational exposures and brain cancer mortality: a preliminary study of east Texas residents. Am J Ind Med. 1988;13(6):629–638. doi: 10.1002/ajim.4700130603. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Thériault G., Goldberg M., Miller A. B., Armstrong B., Guénel P., Deadman J., Imbernon E., To T., Chevalier A., Cyr D. Cancer risks associated with occupational exposure to magnetic fields among electric utility workers in Ontario and Quebec, Canada, and France: 1970-1989. Am J Epidemiol. 1994 Mar 15;139(6):550–572. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a117046. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Tynes T., Reitan J. B., Andersen A. Incidence of cancer among workers in Norwegian hydroelectric power companies. Scand J Work Environ Health. 1994 Oct;20(5):339–344. doi: 10.5271/sjweh.1388. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Occupational and Environmental Medicine are provided here courtesy of BMJ Publishing Group

RESOURCES