Students First....Safety Always

City:

Rating: Rate it:

Involuntary Cancer Study Subjects?

The AZ Republic editorial on the transmission lines near the Sonoran Trails Middle School skirts the research on the health risks. There are approximately 42 residential and 54 occupational studies with respect to leukemia and electromagnetic field (EMF) exposure published between 1979 and 2004. 90% of the studies report an increased rate of leukemia associated with exposure to EMF (Sage, 2004).

That data is firm justification for spurring our community to take precautionary actions to limit our children’s exposure. The World Health Organization and the EPA agree. They recommend that schools be kept away from power lines. The CCUSD93 governing board argue no action is needed because scientists can’t prove how EMF causes cancer, but they ignore the preponderance of evidence that indicates there is an increased rate of leukemia. The weight of the evidence trumps the uncertainty factor.

The prudent choice is for CCUSD to take action so that our kid’s health is not put at risk from the wires. Kids deserve to be safe. Yes the fix will cost. But not fixing will cost more: For every child that gets leukemia, its about $900,000 to treat with no recurrence. One kid in 10,000 gets it from "whatever" – if you have a 2- fold to 4-fold increase you get an additional two, three or four per ten thousand. And that does not count the general ill-health, immune system dysfunction, and other possible cancers like brain tumors. That makes the fix cost look reasonable.

Taking no action turns our 700 kids into involuntary cancer study subjects. Do we need to wait and see that in 10-20 years the outcome of a 2 to 4 fold increase in their cancer rates matches what is indicated by current studies? Other states and other countries have laws that push schools away from transmission lines. In California the Department of Education has established mandatory setbacks and buffer zones from power lines. They also require that site and building design ensure low-EMF environments in new schools. Arizona needs the same. Let’s fix the problem at STMS and after that we can call upon our state legislature to help prevent future schools from needlessly being built too close to power lines.
Rees Candee