+ Health and Sciences +

STUDY CITES INCIDENCE OF CANCER NEAR POWER LINES By ELIZABETH KOLBERT, Special to the New York Times Published: July 9, 1987 ALBANY, July 8—  A study issued today by the New York State Health Department says that children with leukemia or brain cancer are more likely than healthy children to be living in homes where the exposure to the magnetic fields generated by electric power lines is high. In addition to the higher incidence of childhood cancer, the study suggests that exposure to a magnetic field causes behavorial changes in laboratory animals. Researchers were quick to note that they could not explain the higher incidence of cancer and that the study did not establish a direct cause-and-effect link. Other variables not measured by the study could be factors in the development of cancer, for which the incidence among children is 1 in 10,000 each year. ''It is not obvious what a mechanism of inducing cancer might be,'' said Dr. Dav