50Hz magnetic field and cancer ? a critical appraisal of current conceptions

Since the first publication of Wertheimer and Leeper in 1979 on possible cancer risk due to magnetic fields, numerous studies have been published thereby provoking controversies in public. It seems to be remarkable that the representatives of electrical engineering and sciences did not really participate in the discussion leaving the field to people with limited knowledge in physics and biophysics. There are several hypotheses on how magnetic field could be effective biologically, though they were never proved. A thorough analysis of a large Swedish study on cancer in relation to magnetic fields reveals that the results are not so unfavourable for cancer in children as their authors suggest, if the boundary conditions are critically looked at, a problem which is common to all case-control-studies. Calculations of the induced and influenced electric fields by external magnetic and electric fields demonstrate that their levels are far below levels for stimulation of nerves and muscles. There is no proof of a correlation between cancer and magnetic fields so far nor any explication on how this could be accomplished biophysically. The question remains open why the theme "electrosmog" found such an interest in the public within the last 10 years.