Residential exposure to extremely low-frequency magnetic fields and risk of childhood leukaemia, CNS tumour and lymphoma in Denmark
Menée au Danemark sur 9 129 enfants sains et à l'aide de données portant sur 3 277 patients pédiatriques atteints d'une leucémie, d'une tumeur du système nerveux central ou d'un lymphome diagnostiqué entre 1968 et 2003, cette étude évalue l'association entre une exposition résidentielle à des champs magnétiques de fréquence extrêmement basse et le risque de développer ces maladies
Background : We previously reported that children exposed to elevated extremely low-frequency magnetic fields (ELF-MF) had a five to six times higher risk of leukaemia, central nervous system (CNS) tumour and malignant lymphoma. Here we extend the study from 1968 to 1986 through 2003. Methods : We included 3277 children with leukaemia, CNS tumour or malignant lymphoma during 1968–2003 recorded in the Danish Cancer Registry and 9129 controls randomly selected from the Danish childhood population. ELF-MF from 50 to 400 kV facilities were calculated at the residences. Results : For recently diagnosed cases (1987–2003), the relative risk (RR) was 0.88 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.32–2.42), while for the total period (1968–2003) it was 1.63 (95% CI: 0.77–3.46) for leukaemia, CNS tumour and malignant lymphoma combined for exposures greater than or equal to0.4
μT compared with <0.1
μT. These results were based on five cases (recent period) and 11 cases (total period) in the highest exposure group. Conclusions
:
We did not confirm the previous finding of a five- to six-fold higher risk for leukaemia, CNS tumour and malignant lymphoma when including data from the more recent time period. For the total time period, the results for childhood leukaemia were in line with large pooled analyses showing RRs between 1.5 and 2.