Draper Gerald, Vincent Tim, Kroll Mary E, Swanson John
Childhood Cancer Research Group, University of Oxford, Oxford OX2 6HJ.
BMJ. 2005 Jun 4;330(7503):1290. doi: 10.1136/bmj.330.7503.1290.
To determine whether there is an association between distance of home address at birth from high voltage power lines and the incidence of leukaemia and other cancers in children in England and Wales.
Case-control study.
Cancer registry and National Grid records.
Records of 29 081 children with cancer, including 9700 with leukaemia. Children were aged 0-14 years and born in England and Wales, 1962-95. Controls were individually matched for sex, approximate date of birth, and birth registration district. No active participation was required.
Distance from home address at birth to the nearest high voltage overhead power line in existence at the time.
Compared with those who lived > 600 m from a line at birth, children who lived within 200 m had a relative risk of leukaemia of 1.69 (95% confidence interval 1.13 to 2.53); those born between 200 and 600 m had a relative risk of 1.23 (1.02 to 1.49). There was a significant (P < 0.01) trend in risk in relation to the reciprocal of distance from the line. No excess risk in relation to proximity to lines was found for other childhood cancers.
There is an association between childhood leukaemia and proximity of home address at birth to high voltage power lines, and the apparent risk extends to a greater distance than would have been expected from previous studies. About 4% of children in England and Wales live within 600 m of high voltage lines at birth. If the association is causal, about 1% of childhood leukaemia in England and Wales would be attributable to these lines, though this estimate has considerable statistical uncertainty. There is no accepted biological mechanism to explain the epidemiological results; indeed, the relation may be due to chance or confounding.
确定在英格兰和威尔士，儿童出生时家庭住址与高压电线的距离和白血病及其他癌症发病率之间是否存在关联。
病例对照研究。
癌症登记处和国家电网记录。
29081名患癌儿童的记录，其中包括9700名白血病患儿。这些儿童年龄在0至14岁之间，于1962年至1995年在英格兰和威尔士出生。对照者按性别、大致出生日期和出生登记区进行个体匹配。无需主动参与。
出生时家庭住址到当时存在的最近高压架空电线的距离。
与出生时居住在距离电线600米以上的儿童相比，居住在200米以内的儿童患白血病的相对风险为1.69（95%置信区间1.13至2.53）；出生在200米至600米之间的儿童相对风险为1.23（1.02至1.49）。风险与到电线距离的倒数之间存在显著（P<0.01）趋势。对于其他儿童癌症，未发现与靠近电线相关的额外风险。
儿童白血病与出生时家庭住址靠近高压电线之间存在关联，且明显风险延伸的距离比先前研究所预期的更远。在英格兰和威尔士，约4%的儿童出生时居住在距离高压线600米以内。如果这种关联是因果关系，那么在英格兰和威尔士，约1%的儿童白血病可归因于这些电线，不过这一估计存在相当大的统计不确定性。目前尚无公认的生物学机制来解释这些流行病学结果；实际上，这种关系可能是由于偶然因素或混杂因素导致的。
