Executive Board Reaffirms 1995 EMF Statement

At its September meeting, the APS Executive Board reaffirmed the Society's 1995 statement [3] on power line fields and public health, triggered by public concern over the perceived potential cancer risks of extreme low frequency electromagnetic fields generated by said power lines. That statement concluded that "conjectures relating cancer to power line fields have not been scientifically substantiated." In fact, since then, additional scientific studies and exhaustive epidemiological surveys have uncovered no evidence of health effects from power line fields.

The Executive Board was prompted by actions of a panel convened by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, which voted to make EMF a "possible" carcinogen. Their claim contradicts a 3-year NRC review and monumental NCI epidemiological studies. In a second statement approved at the same meeting, the APS Executive Board of the American Physical Society affirmed its continuing support for the efforts of its officers and others to achieve science-content standards in the State of California that are consistent with those developed by the NAS and AAAS.