A comment on results of recent pooled analyses of epidemiological papers related to cancer and power‐line magnetic fields

• Published in: Electrical Engineering in Japan
• Main Author: Amemiya, Yoshifumi
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Wiley 2004
• Subjects: Greenland
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/eej.10344; https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1002%2Feej.10344; https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/eej.10344

Abstract In June 2001, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified ELF magnetic fields as a possible human carcinogen based on the results of two recent pooled analyses by Ahlbom et al. and Greenland et al. on epidemiological papers for childhood leukemia. Examining their data, this author read information other than theirs: in the paper by Ahlbom et al., for instance, 9 cases were prepared for verifying the hypothesis that magnetic fields are associated with childhood leukemia, and this author considers that the general conclusion derived by inductive inference is that the hypothesis is not supported, because 2 cases of the 9 support the hypothesis and 7 cases do not, although the hypothesis has been accepted by many people for about 20 years; furthermore, the author does not consider that the IARC's evaluation that risk doubles in excess of 3 or 4 mG is based on the general conclusion, because it is derived from pooling two kinds of data, one of which is the 7 cases bringing the “general conclusion,” and the other is the remaining 2 cases being the “particular fact.” © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Electr Eng Jpn, 148(4): 59–64, 2004; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/eej.10344