<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">

<sec id="j_raon-2023-0002_s_005"><h3>Background</h3>
<p>Some previous research showed that average daily exposure to extremely low frequency (ELF) magnetic fields (MF) of more than 0.3 or 0.4 μT could potentially increase risk of childhood leukaemia.</p></sec>
<sec id="j_raon-2023-0002_s_006"><h3>Materials and methods</h3>
<p>To allow calculations of ELF MF around high voltage (HV) power lines (PL) for the whole Slovenia, a new three-dimensional method including precision terrain elevation data was developed to calculate the long-term average ELF MF. Data on population of Slovenian children and adolescents and on cancer patients with leukaemia’s aged 0–19 years, brain tumours at age 0–29, and cancer in general at age 0–14 for a 12-year period 2005–2016 was obtained from the Slovenian Cancer Registry.</p></sec>
<sec id="j_raon-2023-0002_s_007"><h3>Results</h3>
<p>According to the large-scale calculation for the whole country, only 0.5% of children and adolescents under the age of 19 in Slovenia lived in an area near HV PL with ELF MF density greater than 0.1 μT. The risk of cancer for children and adolescents living in areas with higher ELF MF was not significantly different from the risk of their peers.</p></sec>
<sec id="j_raon-2023-0002_s_008"><h3>Conclusions</h3>
<p>The new method enables relatively fast calculation of the value of low-frequency magnetic fields for arbitrary loads of the power distribution network, as the value of each source for arbitrary load is calculated by scaling the value for nominal load, which also enables significantly faster adjustment of calculated estimates in the power distribution network.</p></sec>
</abstract>

Background
Some previous research showed that average daily exposure to extremely low frequency (ELF) magnetic fields (MF) of more than 0.3 or 0.4 μT could potentially increase risk of childhood leukaemia.
Materials and methods
To allow calculations of ELF MF around high voltage (HV) power lines (PL) for the whole Slovenia, a new three-dimensional method including precision terrain elevation data was developed to calculate the long-term average ELF MF. Data on population of Slovenian children and adolescents and on cancer patients with leukaemia’s aged 0–19 years, brain tumours at age 0–29, and cancer in general at age 0–14 for a 12-year period 2005–2016 was obtained from the Slovenian Cancer Registry.
Results
According to the large-scale calculation for the whole country, only 0.5% of children and adolescents under the age of 19 in Slovenia lived in an area near HV PL with ELF MF density greater than 0.1 μT. The risk of cancer for children and adolescents living in areas with higher ELF MF was not significantly different from the risk of their peers.
Conclusions
The new method enables relatively fast calculation of the value of low-frequency magnetic fields for arbitrary loads of the power distribution network, as the value of each source for arbitrary load is calculated by scaling the value for nominal load, which also enables significantly faster adjustment of calculated estimates in the power distribution network.

Estimating exposure to extremely low frequency magnetic fields near high-voltage power lines and assessment of possible increased cancer risk among Slovenian children and adolescents

Radiology and Oncology

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Background
Some previous research showed that average daily exposure to extremely low frequency (ELF) magnetic fields (MF) of more than 0.3 or 0.4 μT could...

Estimating exposure to extremely low frequency magnetic fields near high-voltage power lines and assessment of possible increased cancer risk among Slovenian children and adolescents

Article Category: Research Article

Published Online: Jan 08, 2023

Page range: 59 - 69

Received: Oct 25, 2022

Accepted: Nov 10, 2022

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2478/raon-2023-0002

© 2023 Tina Zagar, Blaz Valic, Tadej Kotnik, Sara Korat, Sonja Tomsic, Vesna Zadnik, Peter Gajsek, published by Sciendo

This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.