Do powerlines really cause cancer?

They never said that in the movie, remember when Loretta tells Johnson that some say they do, some say it's just a coincidence. But I think authorities agree that high voltage lines may cause cancer, but of course within a certain distant, I wouldn't know about the lines shown in the movie, they seemed pretty high from ground. Nevertheless they made a good point.

Power lines do not cause cancer.

A study was done at one point which showed higher rates of cancer in neighborhoods which contained high tension power lines. But the author of the study himself said there was likely no causation. He believed the correlation was because the lines lower property values, so those neighborhoods tend to be occupied by lower-income families. Lower-income people are statistically more likely to have cancer. These facts combined to make it appear that power lines caused cancer. It is a classic example that shows correlation does not mean causation. Of course, that did not stop the media from running with the story.

The power line-cancer link was conclusively disproven when a study of power line workers showed no increased occurance of cancer. Those people work up-close with power lines every day and it didn't affect them.

As for another comment which compared power lines to cell phones, there is no common element beteen the two. Cell phones produce microwave and radio wave radiation, while power lineage generate magnetic fields.

The movie was made at the time when the media was making a big deal about power lines or before any real studies were done. If the movie was made at a different time. They probably would have picked something else.

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