The La Perouse Precinct Committee has written to the local member (for North Botany Bay area), Michael Daley, to express their fears about increased cancer risks, particularly for children living near the proposed route of the 2 x 132kv cables and those attending La Perouse Primary School which is also located on the proposed route.  The Precinct Committee is calling on Mr Daley to ask the Planning Minister, Mr Sartor, to have the cables located away from residential and school property.  The cables will be buried but this does not reduce the risk, see EAA submission to IPART.  The Precinct Committee’s letter and links to the Sydney Morning Herald report of 23 August 2007 and links to ABC reports of 22 and 23 August follow:

The Hon Michael Daley MP
Member for Maroubra

Dear Michael

I have attached a copy of an article from the SMH Wed Aug 22 2007 page 5 relating to very recent  research by the Universities of Tasmania and Bristol on cancer risks affecting people living near power transmission lines. In summary the findings were that people who as a child up to the age of five lived within 300 metres of a power line are 5 times more likely to develop cancer than the general population and those who lived that close at any time during their first 15 years are 3 times more likely to develop cancer as an adult. Recent research from Russia suggests children are more susceptible than adults because the low frequency magnetic radiation preferentially affects stem cells and stem cells are more prevalent in
children than in adults. The latter information is available on the internet.

Assurances on safety in the Environmental Assessment  put out by Energy Australia depend strongly on the draft standard being contemplated by ARPANSA. However that draft standard( which incidentally was not agreed to by Standards Australia) relates only to immediate health effects in the form of body heating from short term exposure to magnetic radiation. It does not
relate to biological effects from chronic exposure as people in houses and education facilities near powerlines would experience. In respect to chronic exposure both ARPANSA and the National Health and Medical Research Council of Australia have been stating for several years that more research has to be done. Well that research has now been done and not only by Australia and England but also several other countries. Russia, China , Switzerland and
Italy have adopted standards which relate to chronic exposure and these standards are at a factor of 100 times less than the draft ARPANSA standard for short term exposure on which Energy Australia is promoting as a safety standard.

Close to the cable route proposed for the La Perouse Precinct there is a school, a kindergarten and numerous houses with children. If the Australian research is correct then the proposed power lines will sentence those children to a highly probable death by cancer as an adult. You can be certain than Russia China Switzerland and Italy would not adopt the stringent standards that they have adopted without there being a very strong reason.

With deep respect the La Perouse Precinct Committee asks you to request the Minister for Planning to have researched the specific matters raised above and that he be advised accordingly before making a determination on the Botany Bay Cable Project. It is the Committee’s position that the cable should be routed from Kurnell to the Breakwater at Port Botany or to the western end of Yarra Beach then along Military Road to the Bunnerong
transformer thereby totally avoiding the residential areas.

Kind regards
Charles Abela
Chair on behalf of the La Perouse Precinct Committee

REPORTS FROM ABC:  http://abc.net.au/news/video/2007/08/22/2012504.htm

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2007/08/23/2013552.htm

Research underlines powerline cancer risk

Bellinda Kontominas Medical Reporter
August 22, 2007, Sydney Morning Herald

PEOPLE who live close to high-voltage powerlines during childhood are up to five times more likely to develop cancer, according to Australian research.

The Tasmanian study of more than 850 patients adds weight to the link between electromagnetic fields and cancers such as leukaemia, lymphoma and multiple myeloma. It is still not known whether there is a cause and effect relationship.

Those who lived within 300 metres of a powerline up to the age of five were five times more likely to develop cancer, while those who lived that close to a powerline at any point during their first 15 years were three times more likely to develop cancer as an adult, according to the study published in the Internal Medicine Journal.

Researchers from the University of Tasmania and Bristol University in Britain compared an existing database of all patients in Tasmania diagnosed with lymphatic and bone marrow cancers between 1972 and 1980, with controls matched for sex and age. Residential histories were then gathered.

People who had lived within 50 metres of a high-voltage powerline at any time were at double the risk of developing cancer than those who had never lived within 300 metres of a powerline. For every year lived within 50 metres of a powerline, the risk of cancer increased by 7 per cent, the study found. There was also evidence the risk of cancer increased with higher voltages.

The lead researcher, Professor Ray Lowenthal, from the University of Tasmania, said the debate about possible carcinogenic effects of electromagnetic fields had been going for more than 20 years. “The evidence of detrimental long-term health effects is far from conclusive and international guidelines for limiting exposure to EMF are based on possible short-term effects rather than longer-term disease risks such as cancer,” Professor Lowenthal said.

People who lived near powerlines tended to be from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, although the study had attempted to control for this and the occupational risk of cancer.

“Despite the limitations of this study … our novel finding that the risks of adult leukaemia and lymphoma are most strongly associated with early childhood exposure to powerlines deserves further study at both the population and laboratory levels.”

Bruce Armstrong, Professor of Public Health at Sydney University said the study was consistent with previous research.

“I think we are in a position where we have to say that there is a possibility that exposure to electromagnetic fields increases the risk of some cancers, but I don’t think we know yet whether powerlines actually cause cancer.”

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