Alarm on Radiation From Power Cables
Philippine Daily Inquirer
December 08, 1999
Featured article by Frank Cimatu, "Living dangerously under these power lines" (PDI, 30/11/99) is very timely and deserves an immediate follow up. Thousands of people in the Philippines are living dangerously close to power lines, transformers and microwave cellphone towers. The electromagnetic radiation from these sources pose a real danger to residents and especially children whose cells are still dividing and multiplying as they grow.
Last week, new scientific evidence on electromagnetic radiation has just been published in the International Journal of Radiation Biology and released at a press conference held at the Institute of Mechanical Engineers in London on December 1.
The discovery by the British scientist, Professor Denis Henshaw, a distinguished researcher at Bristol University 's human radiation effects group in England, confirmed a theory worked out three years ago that electromagnetic radiation is directly linked to leukemia and other cancers in children.
Henshaw and his team have proven after years of painstaking research and over 2,000 field tests to back it up, that the radiation from power cables extend for more than 100 yards on each side of the cables and that they increase the human uptake of radioactive gas (radon) given off by the earth and the gases in traffic pollution. These gases damage the blood cells of humans, and children are the most vulnerable.
The research was funded by the Department of Health and the Medical Research Council of the United Kingdom. The findings are supported by another parallel study by Professor Richard Doll to be published in The Lancet. Doll was the first to establish the link between tobacco and cancer when the industry had denied such a link.
Now he has established a link between radiation and leukemia. He collated details of every childhood leukemia case in the past four years to find common links to radiation. Clusters of childhood leukemia have been associated to electromagnetic radiation for years but the direct evidence making the connection was lacking. Now it has been found.
There is more information at www.preda.org (see pylon protest, archives , breaking news) or e-mail preda@info.com.ph--
FR. SHAY CULLEN, Mssc.,
PREDA Children's Home,
Human Development Center,
Upper Kalaklan, Olongapo City
