New study on power lines and cancer

You heard the rumors: Magnetic radiation emitted by high-tension power lines causes cancer. But last year, one of the promoters of the radiation risk theory was exposed as having faked his research. But before you build a house under a transformer, a researcher in England thinks you should know what he found.

While the ionizing radiation given off by power lines may not be dangerous on its own, says researcher Denis Henshaw of Bristol University, what it does to pollutants in the air can be. Quoted in an article by the BBC, Henshaw said the radiation given off by high-tension lines changes the electrical charge of airborne particles, making those potentially harmful particles more likely to stick in the lungs of unsuspecting humans living nearby.

Henshaw’s research provides another explanation for cancer clusters found in communities adjacent to overhead power lines.