Electromagnetic field cancer risk epidemiological studies experience in the Russian Federation

Abstract

Introduction. Based on the urgency of the problem of workers and general public risk of malignant neoplasms due to power frequency (PF) electromagnetic fields (EMF) impact, which led to research on its role in leukemia development expansion in all countries, the data of 4 similar studies of the Institute of occupational health are summarized. The aim of the study is to assess the risk of hemoblastosis in workers and general public under EMF occupational and non-occupational exposure. Materials and methods. 4 analytical epidemiological studies were performed: 2 cohort studies and 2 case - control studies. Results. Cohort study of 500 kV electric grid facilities personnel mortality, taking into account the electric (EF) and magnetic field (MF) exposure values, showed that the standardized relative risk (SRR) of death from all causes was 0.61; from cardiovascular diseases - 0.54, malignancies - 0.89, accidents, injuries and poisoning - 0.95. At the same time, from leukemia, SRR was increased by 2 times compared to the control (2.03), but statistically insignificant (95% CI 0.23-7.31). Retrospective case - control cancer-epidemiological study aimed at assessing the relationship between hemoblastosis various forms development and PF EMF occupational revealed to statistically unreliable increase of leukemia developing relative risk (OR) (1.64). MF mainly exposed personnel were found to have an increased risk of lymphomas developing (2.92), which was statistically significant (χ2 >3,84). Cancer-epidemiological case-control study to identify a causal relationship between parents occupational EMF exposure and childhood hemoblastosis development revealed the tendency to increase the risk, more pronounced in case of fathers MF exposure as well as high-voltage equipment EMF exposure (OR=4.6 95% CI 0.6-35.0 and OR=2.7 CI 0.9-7.8). In the study of mortality of living in the vicinity of 500 and 750 kV substations and overhead transmission lines population, due to low mortality from all causes of death, there was standardized risk of death from leukemia statistically nonsignificant increased (SR-1,3 95% CI 0,2-7,0). Conclusion. The results of studies showed a tendency to increase the risk of dying from hemoblastosis against the background of low mortality rates from other classes of diseases, which coincides with the main conclusions of most foreign publications on the problem.