Evidence for EMF-Cancer Link Deemed Weak, Risk Small

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, NC—After 6 years of research and 2 years of review, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences reported to Congress that the evidence that low-frequency electromagnetic fields (EMFs) can cause cancer and other human diseases is weak, but added that EMF exposure “cannot be recognized as entirely safe.”

A 1996 report by the Institute of Medicine found scant evidence to support EMF as a cancer risk, and federal investigators recently discredited a study from the Energy Department’s Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory because a scientist omitted data that did not support a link between EMFs and cancer.