Proximity to overhead power lines and childhood leukaemia: an international pooled analysis

Aryana T Amoon; Catherine M Crespi; Anders Ahlbom; Megha Bhatnagar; Isabelle Bray; Kathryn J Bunch; Jacqueline Clavel; Maria Feychting; Denis Hémon; Christoffer Johansen; Christian Kreis; Carlotta Malagoli; Fabienne Marquant; Camilla Pedersen; Ole Raaschou-Nielsen; Martin Röösli; Ben D Spycher; Madhuri Sudan; John Swanson; Andrea Tittarelli; Deirdre M Tuck; Tore Tynes; Ximena Vergara; Marco Vinceti; Victor Wünsch-Filho; Leeka Kheifets

doi:10.1038/s41416-018-0097-7

Proximity to overhead power lines and childhood leukaemia: an international pooled analysis

Aryana T Amoon, Catherine M Crespi, Anders Ahlbom, Megha Bhatnagar, Isabelle Bray, Kathryn J Bunch, Jacqueline Clavel, Maria Feychting, Denis Hémon, Christoffer Johansen, Christian Kreis, Carlotta Malagoli, Fabienne Marquant, Camilla Pedersen, Ole Raaschou-Nielsen, Martin Röösli, Ben D Spycher, Madhuri Sudan, John Swanson, Andrea TittarelliDeirdre M Tuck, Tore Tynes, Ximena Vergara, Marco Vinceti, Victor Wünsch-Filho, Leeka Kheifets

Department of Clinical Medicine

15 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Background: Although studies have consistently found an association between childhood leukaemia risk and magnetic fields, the associations between childhood leukaemia and distance to overhead power lines have been inconsistent. We pooled data from multiple studies to assess the association with distance and evaluate whether it is due to magnetic fields or other factors associated with distance from lines. Methods: We present a pooled analysis combining individual-level data (29,049 cases and 68,231 controls) from 11 record-based studies. Results: There was no material association between childhood leukaemia and distance to nearest overhead power line of any voltage. Among children living < 50 m from 200 + kV power lines, the adjusted odds ratio for childhood leukaemia was 1.33 (95% CI: 0.92–1.93). The odds ratio was higher among children diagnosed before age 5 years. There was no association with calculated magnetic fields. Odds ratios remained unchanged with adjustment for potential confounders. Conclusions: In this first comprehensive pooled analysis of childhood leukaemia and distance to power lines, we found a small and imprecise risk for residences < 50 m of 200 + kV lines that was not explained by high magnetic fields. Reasons for the increased risk, found in this and many other studies, remains to be elucidated.

Original language	English
Journal	British Journal of Cancer
Volume	119
Issue number	3
Pages (from-to)	364-373
Number of pages	10
ISSN	0007-0920
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41416-018-0097-7
Publication status	Published - 1 Aug 2018

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Amoon, A. T., Crespi, C. M., Ahlbom, A., Bhatnagar, M., Bray, I., Bunch, K. J., Clavel, J., Feychting, M., Hémon, D., Johansen, C., Kreis, C., Malagoli, C., Marquant, F., Pedersen, C., Raaschou-Nielsen, O., Röösli, M., Spycher, B. D., Sudan, M., Swanson, J., ... Kheifets, L. (2018). Proximity to overhead power lines and childhood leukaemia: an international pooled analysis. British Journal of Cancer, 119(3), 364-373. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41416-018-0097-7

Amoon, AT, Crespi, CM, Ahlbom, A, Bhatnagar, M, Bray, I, Bunch, KJ, Clavel, J, Feychting, M, Hémon, D, Johansen, C, Kreis, C, Malagoli, C, Marquant, F, Pedersen, C, Raaschou-Nielsen, O, Röösli, M, Spycher, BD, Sudan, M, Swanson, J, Tittarelli, A, Tuck, DM, Tynes, T, Vergara, X, Vinceti, M, Wünsch-Filho, V & Kheifets, L 2018, 'Proximity to overhead power lines and childhood leukaemia: an international pooled analysis', British Journal of Cancer, vol. 119, no. 3, pp. 364-373. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41416-018-0097-7

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title = "Proximity to overhead power lines and childhood leukaemia: an international pooled analysis",

abstract = "Background: Although studies have consistently found an association between childhood leukaemia risk and magnetic fields, the associations between childhood leukaemia and distance to overhead power lines have been inconsistent. We pooled data from multiple studies to assess the association with distance and evaluate whether it is due to magnetic fields or other factors associated with distance from lines. Methods: We present a pooled analysis combining individual-level data (29,049 cases and 68,231 controls) from 11 record-based studies. Results: There was no material association between childhood leukaemia and distance to nearest overhead power line of any voltage. Among children living < 50 m from 200 + kV power lines, the adjusted odds ratio for childhood leukaemia was 1.33 (95% CI: 0.92–1.93). The odds ratio was higher among children diagnosed before age 5 years. There was no association with calculated magnetic fields. Odds ratios remained unchanged with adjustment for potential confounders. Conclusions: In this first comprehensive pooled analysis of childhood leukaemia and distance to power lines, we found a small and imprecise risk for residences < 50 m of 200 + kV lines that was not explained by high magnetic fields. Reasons for the increased risk, found in this and many other studies, remains to be elucidated.",

author = "Amoon, {Aryana T} and Crespi, {Catherine M} and Anders Ahlbom and Megha Bhatnagar and Isabelle Bray and Bunch, {Kathryn J} and Jacqueline Clavel and Maria Feychting and Denis H{\'e}mon and Christoffer Johansen and Christian Kreis and Carlotta Malagoli and Fabienne Marquant and Camilla Pedersen and Ole Raaschou-Nielsen and Martin R{\"o}{\"o}sli and Spycher, {Ben D} and Madhuri Sudan and John Swanson and Andrea Tittarelli and Tuck, {Deirdre M} and Tore Tynes and Ximena Vergara and Marco Vinceti and Victor W{\"u}nsch-Filho and Leeka Kheifets",

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doi = "10.1038/s41416-018-0097-7",

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T1 - Proximity to overhead power lines and childhood leukaemia

T2 - an international pooled analysis

AU - Amoon, Aryana T

AU - Crespi, Catherine M

AU - Ahlbom, Anders

AU - Bhatnagar, Megha

AU - Bray, Isabelle

AU - Bunch, Kathryn J

AU - Clavel, Jacqueline

AU - Feychting, Maria

AU - Hémon, Denis

AU - Johansen, Christoffer

AU - Kreis, Christian

AU - Malagoli, Carlotta

AU - Marquant, Fabienne

AU - Pedersen, Camilla

AU - Raaschou-Nielsen, Ole

AU - Röösli, Martin

AU - Spycher, Ben D

AU - Sudan, Madhuri

AU - Swanson, John

AU - Tittarelli, Andrea

AU - Tuck, Deirdre M

AU - Tynes, Tore

AU - Vergara, Ximena

AU - Vinceti, Marco

AU - Wünsch-Filho, Victor

AU - Kheifets, Leeka

PY - 2018/8/1

Y1 - 2018/8/1

N2 - Background: Although studies have consistently found an association between childhood leukaemia risk and magnetic fields, the associations between childhood leukaemia and distance to overhead power lines have been inconsistent. We pooled data from multiple studies to assess the association with distance and evaluate whether it is due to magnetic fields or other factors associated with distance from lines. Methods: We present a pooled analysis combining individual-level data (29,049 cases and 68,231 controls) from 11 record-based studies. Results: There was no material association between childhood leukaemia and distance to nearest overhead power line of any voltage. Among children living < 50 m from 200 + kV power lines, the adjusted odds ratio for childhood leukaemia was 1.33 (95% CI: 0.92–1.93). The odds ratio was higher among children diagnosed before age 5 years. There was no association with calculated magnetic fields. Odds ratios remained unchanged with adjustment for potential confounders. Conclusions: In this first comprehensive pooled analysis of childhood leukaemia and distance to power lines, we found a small and imprecise risk for residences < 50 m of 200 + kV lines that was not explained by high magnetic fields. Reasons for the increased risk, found in this and many other studies, remains to be elucidated.

AB - Background: Although studies have consistently found an association between childhood leukaemia risk and magnetic fields, the associations between childhood leukaemia and distance to overhead power lines have been inconsistent. We pooled data from multiple studies to assess the association with distance and evaluate whether it is due to magnetic fields or other factors associated with distance from lines. Methods: We present a pooled analysis combining individual-level data (29,049 cases and 68,231 controls) from 11 record-based studies. Results: There was no material association between childhood leukaemia and distance to nearest overhead power line of any voltage. Among children living < 50 m from 200 + kV power lines, the adjusted odds ratio for childhood leukaemia was 1.33 (95% CI: 0.92–1.93). The odds ratio was higher among children diagnosed before age 5 years. There was no association with calculated magnetic fields. Odds ratios remained unchanged with adjustment for potential confounders. Conclusions: In this first comprehensive pooled analysis of childhood leukaemia and distance to power lines, we found a small and imprecise risk for residences < 50 m of 200 + kV lines that was not explained by high magnetic fields. Reasons for the increased risk, found in this and many other studies, remains to be elucidated.

U2 - 10.1038/s41416-018-0097-7

DO - 10.1038/s41416-018-0097-7

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 29808013

SN - 0007-0920

VL - 119

SP - 364

EP - 373

JO - British Journal of Cancer

JF - British Journal of Cancer

IS - 3

ER -

Proximity to overhead power lines and childhood leukaemia: an international pooled analysis

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