ESB dismisses new claims that power lines can cause cancer

Fresh claims by British researchers that power lines can cause cancer in people living near them have been dismissed by the ESB, which said no link had been found between electricity and illness. However, anti-power line campaigners have described the research as "worrying".

Scientists at the University of Bristol have said a new epidemiological study will show there is a 29 per cent increased risk of lung cancer among people living within 400 metres of overhead transmission lines.

Neither the researchers nor the university would comment directly on the work yesterday because it has yet to be published.

The research links the work of two Bristol scientists, Prof Denis Henshaw, a physicist who specialises in the effects of radiation on humans, and Dr Alan Preece, an epidemiologist at the Bristol Medical School.

Prof Henshaw published work last December which claimed people living close to power lines were being exposed to higher levels of pollution. This was caused by pollution becoming electrically charged because of the power lines, making it more likely to be trapped in the lungs when breathed in.

Dr Preece presented preliminary work at a conference in Munich last June, at which he claimed there was a greater cancer risk for people living within 400 metres "downwind" of the lines. He based the claim on studies of cancer deaths in Britain.

The ESB was satisfied that nothing which had been published to date by scientists in peer-reviewed journals had provided reliable evidence of a health risk, according to Mr John Gartland, an electric and magnetic field specialist with the company.

"Our judgment is based on the conclusions of the most authoritative international scientific bodies on this issue," he said yesterday.

Dr Henshaw's work was published last December in the Inter- national Journal of Radiation Biology, but the new study by Dr Preece had not yet been peer reviewed, Mr Gartland said.

"We in the ESB feel it is unwise to draw conclusions from these studies until they are complete, published and have been subject to normal scrutiny by other scientists," he added.

Anti-pylon campaigners in Cork had been aware of the Bristol work for some time, according to the chairman of the Cork Anti-Pylon Representative Association, Mr Willie Cunningham.

"In Cork Harbour we have a highly industrialised zone with lots of industry. Prof Henshaw's research appears to be showing that in these situations . . . there seems to be a higher rate of cancer," he said. "The worrying fact is he is now saying that distances of several hundred metres from the power lines can be affected."

He accused the ESB of maintaining a "policy of misinformation", adding that laying submarine and underground cables rather than erecting pylons would solve the problem.