0000000000591754
AUTHOR
Jan-peter Grigat
Extremely low frequency magnetic fields in residences in Germany. Distribution of measurements, comparison of two methods for assessing exposure, and predictors for the occurrence of magnetic fields above background level.
We examined the results of 1,835 magnetic field measurements in German residences conducted between November 1997 and September 1999. The measurements were part of an epidemiological study on the relationship between magnetic fields and childhood leukemia. We performed a fixed-location measurement of the magnetic field at 50 Hz and 16 2/3 Hz (frequency of the German railway system) over 24 h in the child's bedroom in the residence of each study participant. In addition, we conducted a second 24 h-measurement in the living room at 50 Hz, and spot measurements while walking through all rooms of the respective dwelling. Median 50 Hz magnetic fields above 0.2 muT were found to be infrequent in …
Residential magnetic fields as a risk factor for childhood acute leukaemia: Results from a German population-based case-control study
Our objective was to investigate whether exposure to residential power-frequency (50 Hz) magnetic fields above 0.2 μT increases a child's risk of leukaemia and to confirm or reject a finding from a previous German study on this topic, which reported increased leukaemia risk with exposure to stronger magnetic fields during the night. A population-based case-control study was used, covering the whole of the former West Germany. Residential magnetic fields were measured over 24 hr for 514 children with acute leukaemia identified by the German Childhood Cancer Registry and 1,301 control children taken from population registration files. Magnetic fields above 0.2 μT were relatively rare in Germa…
Electromagnetic Fields and Childhood Leukemia: Pooled Analyses of Two German Population-Based Case-Control Studies
From 1992 to 1995 we conducted a population-based case-control study on residential magnetic fields and childhood leukemia in Lower Saxony, a region in northwestern Germany with 7.4 million inhabitants.1,2 Because of the rural character of this area, we detected elevated magnetic fields in only 1.5% of all dwellings. We therefore expanded the EMF-measurements to an ongoing case-control study on childhood leukemia in the capital of Germany, Berlin. We applied the same methods of exposure assessment, intending to pool the data of the two studies and to calculate combined risk estimates.3