Possible associations between ELF electromagnetic fields, DNA damage response processes and childhood leukaemia

P. Hone, A. Edwards, J. Halls, R. Cox, D. Lloyd*

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    14 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Epidemiology has shown an association between exposure to extremely low frequency (ELF) electromagnetic fields (EMF) and childhood leukaemia. The causal nature and biological basis of this association are however questionable. Studies with aneuploid cell lines raised the hypothesis that ELF EMF may act as a coleukaemogen by compromising DNA damage response to genotoxic agents such as ionising radiation. We examined this hypothesis using γ-ray-induced dicentric chromosome exchange in human lymphocytes. The results from 12 h post-γ-ray exposure to fields of 0.23, 0.47 and 0.7 mT provide no support to the hypothesis. The power of the study was sufficient to exclude an ELF enhancement of chromosomal exchange of 10-15% (2SE).

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)1939-1941
    Number of pages3
    JournalBritish Journal of Cancer
    Volume88
    Issue number12
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 16 Jun 2003

    Bibliographical note

    Copyright:
    Copyright 2008 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.

    Keywords

    • Childhood leukaemia
    • Chromosome aberration
    • DNA repair
    • Electromagnetic fields

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