Is there a link between magnetic field exposure at work and cancer in adults?
Several studies conducted in the 1980s and early 1990s reported that people who worked in some electrical occupations (such as power station operators and phone line workers) had higher than expected rates of some types of cancer, particularly leukemia, brain tumors, and male breast cancer (2). Some occupational studies showed very small increases in risk for leukemia and brain cancer, but these results were based on job titles and not actual measurements. More recently conducted studies that have included both job titles and individual exposure measurements have no consistent finding of an increasing risk of leukemia, brain tumors, or female breast cancer with increasing exposure to magnetic fields at work (14, 16, 17, 18). • What have scientists learned from animal experiments about the relationship between magnetic field exposure and cancer? Animal studies have not found that magnetic field exposure is associated with increased risk of cancer (2). The absence of animal data supporti
