DWP Board Grants Funds to Study Electrical Fields
The Los Angeles Board of Water and Power Commissioners on Thursday agreed to contribute $300,000 to a national study on possible health effects from electric and magnetic fields, or EM fields.
The money will go to the Health Effects Institute, a nonprofit research organization in Cambridge, Mass., whose work will also be funded by other utilities and government agencies. EM fields are invisible lines of force emitted by every device that carries electric current--from power lines to computers to electric blankets. Several studies have suggested that children living near high-current power lines and workers in electrical occupations experience higher-than-average cancer risks.
The city Department of Water and Power also has contributed research funds to the Electric Power Research Institute, an organization of utilities. But DWP officials, along with some other utilities, have called for funds to be funneled to a research organization with no ties to the utility industry.
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