Vol. 533 No. 6
145 Mr. P. Carey asked the Minister for Public Enterprise if her attention has been drawn to recently published research which would substantiate or otherwise the fears that people who reside in close proximity to high tension electricity cables and supporting pylons are not at risk of developing cancer or nervous disorders; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [9866/01]
I believe the research to which Deputy Carey refers is the important recent report entitled, ELF Electromagnetic Fields and the Risk of Cancer, published on 6 March 2001 by an independent advisory group to the UK's National Radiological Protection Board, NRPB. The main conclusions from this report are that laboratory experiments have provided no good evidence that extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields are capable of producing cancer, nor do human epidemiological studies suggest that they cause cancer in general. There is, however, some epidemiological evidence that prolonged exposure to higher levels of power frequency magnetic fields is associated with a small risk of leukaemia in children. In practice, such levels of exposure are seldom encountered by the general public in the UK. In the absence of clear evidence of a carcinogenic effect in adults, or of a plausible explanation from experiments on animals or isolated cells, the epidemiological evidence is currently not strong enough to justify a firm conclusion that such fields cause leukaemia in children. Unless, however, further research indicates that the finding is due to chance or some currently unrecognised artefact, the possibility remains that intense and prolonged exposures to magnetic fields can increase the risk of leukaemia in children. It is clear from this conclusion that the findings of the report are less dramatic than some of the headlines that appeared in newspapers at the time of its publication.
In November 2000 the NRPB stated that 99.6% of children in the UK, the overwhelming majority, live in homes where magnetic field levels are below those that the advisory group finds are associated, in some studies, with a small increase in childhood leukaemia. As it is not the practice in Ireland, as it is in the UK, to permit the construction of homes under electricity transmission lines, or permit new transmission lines to overhang existing houses, there are likely to be very few, if any, children here experiencing the prolonged and intense exposures which concern the NRPB's advisory group. I welcome the NRPB report on electromagnetic fields and shall continue to have all developments in this area closely monitored.
