Statistics turned up by Dr. Samuel Milham Jr., an epidemiologist for Washington State, suggest that ham radio operators may be nearly twice as prone to leukemia as the rest of the population.
Reporting in a recent issue of The Lancet, Dr. Milham presented the results of a survey of more than 1,900 amateur radio operators in the states of Washington and California who died from 1971 to 1983.
After obtaining death certificate information for 1,691 of the subjects, he discovered that 24 had died from various types of leukemia. The expected number of leukemia victims in a suitably matched control group would have been 12.6. The incidence of lymphatic and monocytic leukemias was no higher among the radio hobbyists than normal, but myeloid and unspecified leukemias showed sharp increases.
Dr. Milham noted that in 1982 he had presented evidence of a link between leukemia and exposure to electrical and/or magnetic fields. His latest study, he said, offers ''some further support for the hypothesis that electromagnetic fields are carcinogenic.''
In a separate study reported in The Lancet, government researchers in New Zealand found the leukemia rate was unduly high for occupations involving exposure to the electrical and magnetic fields associated with alternating current. Comparing 546 male leukemia victims with 2,184 men selected as controls, the group found the statistics ''generally support the suggestion that electrical workers are at increased risk of leukemia.'
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http://www.nytimes.com/1985/05/07/science/science-watch-ham-radios-and-leukemia.html