Neurodegenerative disease and magnetic field exposure in UK electricity supply workers

Abstract

Background: Previous research has suggested a possible link between neurodegenerative disease and exposure toextremely low-frequency electric and magnetic fields.Aims :To investigate whether risks of Alzheimer's, motor neurone or Parkinson's disease are related tooccupational exposure to magnetic fields.Methods: The mortality experienced by a cohort of 73 051 employees of the former Central ElectricityGenerating Board of England and Wales was investigated for the period 1973-2010. All employeeswere hired in the period 1952-82, were employed for at least 6 months and had some employmentafter 1 January 1973. Detailed calculations had been performed by others to enable an assessment tobe made of exposures to magnetic fields. Poisson regression was used to calculate relative risks (rateratios) of developing any of the three diseases under investigation for categories of lifetime, distant(lagged) and recent (lugged) exposure.Results: No statistically significant trends were shown for risks of any of these diseases to increase with estimatesof lifetime, recent or distant exposure to magnetic fields.Conclusions: There is no convincing evidence that UK electricity generation and transmission workers have sufferedelevated risks from neurodegenerative diseases as a consequence of exposure to magneticfields. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Occupational Medicine. All rights reserved.