The recent discovery of unusual magnetic modes in the CuO2 planes of high-temperature superconducting cuprates HgBa2CuO4+δ in the pseudogap phase, if confirmed, suggests the existence of a new phase of condensed matter. The present situation is controversial since recent measurements of the magnetic environment of barium atoms in YBa2Cu4O8 obtained negative results. The theoretical situation is also controversial since several theoretical studies of the same three-band Hubbard model gave conflicting results. However, the important experimental evidence of ubiquitous strong electron-lattice interaction remains to be understood and we investigate the question of whether orbital currents can exist in an electron-lattice model. We show in a simple physical picture that if a predominant mode of vibration of the oxygens is an unusual planar non-linear mode, orbital currents can be generated. Simple order of magnitude estimates of the magnetic fields generated are remarkably in agreement with an experimental measurement.