ELECTRICAL-POWER LINES AND CHILDHOOD LEUKEMIA - A STUDY FROM GREECE

Residential proximity to electrical power lines of different voltage i n relation to childhood leukemia was investigated through a case-contr ol study undertaken in Greece during 1993-1994. The study comprised 11 7 incident cases of childhood leukemia and 202 age-, gender-and place- of-residence-matched controls. Four measures of exposure to magnetic f ields were developed, using data provided by the Public Power Corporat ion of Greece: Voltage (V) divided by the distance (d), V/d(2), V/d(3) and an adaptation of the Wertheimer-Leeper code. Conditional-logistic -regression modeling was used to adjust for potential confounding infl uences of 18 variables. No significant trends of childhood leukemia ri sk with increasing exposure levels were noted, nor were there statisti cally significant elevations of disease risk at the higher exposure le vels in each measure of exposure. These results do not support a causa l link between residential proximity to electrical high-voltage wives and childhood leukemia risk, but in themselves do not refute a weak em pirical association. (C) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.