USC team sees strong EMF link with Alzheimer's

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As the TurbineTurns Ill

USC Team Sees Strong EMF Link with Alzheimer's niversity of Southern California scientists believe they have found a strong correlation between high electromagnetic field exposure and Alzheimer's disease based on three studies, two conducted in Finland and one in the U.S. USC researchers were involved in all three studies. USC's Dr. Eugene Sobel told the Fourth International Conference on Alzheimer's Disease and Related Disorders, held in Minneapolis in early August, that people with high occupational exposure to EMFs are three times m6re likely to develop Alzheimer's disease than those with low exposure. Relative risks were consistent across the three studies, with the medium-to-high exposure group contracting Alzheimer's at rates 2.9, 3.1 and 3.0 higher than the low exposure group. Subjects were divided into two categories those with m e d i u m to high oc-

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cupational exposure and those with little or no exposure. Sobel and his colleagues also found that dressmakers and tailors were over-represented among Alzheimer's victims - - a result they found unsurprising w h e n further study showed that industrial and home sewing machines produce much larger EMFs than other appliances. Those who use them, the study indicated, sustain exposures up to three times greater than electric power line workers, for example. The USC study's correlation between EMF exposure and Alzheimer's is approximately twice as high as prior studies' correlations for EMF and cancer. Unlike the cancer studies, which produced no viable theories as to how EMFs might cause the disease, the Alzheimer's researchers believe they have found a causal link between Alzheimer's and EMFs. One of Sobel's co-authors, neurologist Zoreh Davanipour of Loma Linda University, found that EMFs increase the number of calcium ions in nerve cells grown in the laboratory: Calcium is be-

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lieved to be important in cells, especially in communication among nerve cells. Sobel speculates that increased levels of calcium ions kill the cells, which could implicate EMFs in neurological diseases. Scientists at the Electric Power Research Institute said they had received an abstract of the USC paper but had not yet had time to review it. They noted that it did not appear to be peer reviewed yet, a fact Sobel confirmed to The

Electricity Journal.

Congress Moves to Lift 80 M W PURPA Cap ongress is moving on a com,promise bill to lift the 80 MW cap on renewables under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act. The retiring Rep. Phil Sharp (DInd.), chairman of the House energy and power subcommittee, and Rep. Carlos Moorhead (RCalif.), ranking subcommittee Republican, wanted to lift the cap permanently. They had the strong support of renewable groups and independent power producers.

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The Electricity Journal