Abstract
A population based case control study of adult haematological malignancy and distance from, and magnetic fields associated with, overhead (OH) power lines has been carried out in the North West and Yorkshire regions of England. Three-thousand, one hundred and forty-four cases with histologically proven disease were entered into the study. One control per case, matched for age, sex, year of diagnosis and health district of residence, was selected from hospital discharges. Seven per cent of cases and controls lived near to OH power lines as defined by the study protocol. The measure of exposure used was the calculated magnetic field strength at each of these addresses due to maximum load currents carried by OH power lines in the 5 years preceding diagnosis. The odds ratio (OR) for living within 50 m of an OH line was 1.29 with a 95% Confidence Interval (CI) of 0.99-1.68 but a chi 2 test for trend with distance was not statistically significant. The analysis of calculated magnetic fields, did not produce any statistically odds ratios. The OR for magnetic fields greater than or equal to 0.1 mG was 1.03 (95% CI 0.81 1.32). Analysis of magnetic fields greater than or equal to 3.0 mG gave an OR of 1.87 (95% CI 0.79 4.42), but this result is based on small numbers. No evidence was found for confounding by the type of dwelling which was used as a partial surrogate for socio-economic status.
Highlights
Two hundred and eighty-one cases with confirmed diagnoses were accrued into the study, 1,511 from the North West and 1,770 from Yorkshire
The numbers of these cases and their controls subsequently removed from the study depended on the order in which validation procedures were undertaken in the two regions
Four hundred and ninety-one pairs were available from the North West and 1,653 pairs from Yorkshire, giving a total, for both regions, of 3,144 matched pairs for analysis
Summary
All cases aged 15 years and over and diagnosed between January 1st 1983 and December 31st 1985 with nonHodgkin's lymphoma, acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, acute myeloid leukaemia and chronic myeloid leukaemia and resident within the North West RHA boundary were eligible for the study. Cases were ascertained from specific leukaemia and lymphoma registries (Youngson et al, in preparation, Gorst, 1984) which have very high levels of diagnostic accuracy. Cases of lymphoid malignancy were classified by the current Kiel classification (Richards & Stansfeld, 1988) and coded using the International Classification of Disease for Oncology - Morphology, WHO 1976 (ICDOM). Five hundred and eleven cases were registered by 31 December 1985, five of which were found to be duplicate registrations.
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