A cohort study was conducted in Finland to investigate the incidence of melanoma and squamous cell carcinoma associated with residential exposure to magnetic fields from indoor transformer stations.
Further results of the same study population on the association with adult hematological malignancies and brain tumors were published by Khan et al. (2021).
| Group | Description |
|---|---|
| Reference group 1 | apartment located on any other floor than the first or ground floors of the building |
| Group 2 | apartment located above the transformer station or sharing a wall with the transformer station |
| Type | Value |
|---|---|
| Total | 225,492 |
8,617 individuals in the exposed group and 170,706 individuals in the reference group;
total person-years of follow-up were 149,291 for the exposed residents and 2,967,986 for the referents
For residential exposure to extremely low frequency magnetic fields, a non-significantly increased risk for melanoma (HR 1.05; CI 0.72-1.53) and a non-significantly decreased risk for squamous cell carcinoma (HR 0.94; CI 0.55-1.61) were observed. Analysis of the age at the start of residence showed a statistically significant elevated risk (HR 2.55; CI 1.15-5.69) for melanoma among those who lived in the apartments when they were less than 15 years old. This finding was based on seven exposed cases.
The authors concluded that the results suggested an association between childhood exposure to extremely low frequency magnetic fields and adult melanoma.
A limitation of the study was the low number of cases, particularly in the analysis focusing on childhood exposure.
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