Researchers from the UK have called into question a theory suggesting that a previously reported risk of leukemia among children born close to overhead power lines could be caused by an alteration to surrounding air pollution. In a study published today, 31 October, in the Journal of Radiological Protection (the official journal of The Society for Radiological Protection), the researchers have found little evidence to support the ‘corona-ion hypothesis’ which has been cited as a possible explanation for the excess of childhood leukemia cases close to high-voltage overhead power lines in the UK prior to the 1980s.
Researchers from the UK have called into question a theory suggesting that a previously reported risk of leukemia among children born close to overhead power lines could be caused by an alteration to surrounding air pollution.
In a study published today, 31 October, in the Journal of Radiological Protection (the official journal of The Society for Radiological Protection), the researchers have found little evidence to support the ‘corona-ion hypothesis’ which has been cited as a possible explanation for the excess of childhood leukemia cases close to high-voltage overhead power lines in the UK prior to the 1980s.
The “corona-ion hypothesis” is based on the fact that high-voltage overhead power lines create charged particles in the surrounding air by a process known as ionisation.
On occasions, these ionised particles, known as corona ions, can be blown away by the wind and attach to air pollutants, such as those from traffic or smoking. The corona-ion hypothesis suggests that these electrically charged pollutants are more likely to be retained in the airways or lungs and that this could lead to serious health effects, including childhood leukemia.
The researchers, from the Childhood Cancer Research Group at the University of Oxford and National Grid, have previously shown that on average in recent decades there has been no increased risk of leukemia among children born near high-voltage power lines; however, the same piece of research confirmed an increased risk prior to the 1980s, which has yet to be explained.
To investigate this theory, the researchers used data from over 7,000 children in England and Wales who were born and diagnosed with leukemia between 1968 and 2008, and who lived within 600 m of a high-voltage overhead power line.
The researchers calculated the exposure of each of the subjects to corona ions using a model based on the voltage of the power line, the distance from the line, how the concentration of corona ions varied with distance from the power lines, and, using data from various meteorological stations, the wind speed and the amount of time that wind blew in each direction around the power lines.
The results did not suggest that exposure to corona ions explained the pattern of increased leukemia rates close to high-voltage overhead power lines previously found in earlier decades.
Read more at The Institute of Physics.
Power lines image via Shutterstock.
