Latest News

2010

06 January 2010
Consent for Beauly-Denny power line
On 6 January 2010, the Scottish Government gave approval to the Beauly-Denny power line. See for example the BBC News coverage. EMFs were raised extensively in the Inquiry process, but the Scottish ...

2009

09 November 2009
National Policy Statement on Electricity Networks
The UK Draft National Policy Statement for Electricity Networks Infrastructure (EN-5) was published on 9 November 2009 and contains a section on EMFs. The National Policy Statements (NPS) guide the ...
16 October 2009
Government response to SAGE
SAGE is the Stakeholder Advisory Group on ELF EMFs. See more on what SAGE is and what conclusions it has reached. On 12 October 2009, Government On October 16 2009, Government formally responded to ...
30 July 2009
ICNIRP ELF consultation
ICNIRP (the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection) have published a consultation draft on new ELF exposure guidelines. The consultation runs until October. See more details ...
06 July 2009
SCENIHR research recommendations
SCENIHR - the European Union's Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks - have published recommendations for research on EMFs. These are a follow-up to their update on the ...
01 June 2009
Developments in Austria and Germany
There are legislative developments in Austria and Germany concerning requirements to bury power lines. We do not necessarily have a clear picture of all that is happening but we give such hard ...
30 May 2009
New Zealand: draft report on proposed power line
A Board of Inquiry has been considering a proposal to build a major new high-voltage power line in New Zealand. Its draft "Report and Decisions" has now been published. On EMFs, it ...
26 May 2009
Response by Commission to European Parliament motion
Following the motion on EMFs passed by the European Parliament, the European Commission have given their response in the form of an answer to the following question: WRITTEN QUESTION by Glenis ...
30 March 2009
Motion on EMFs in European Parliament
The European Parliament is due to vote on 2 April on a motion 2008/2211(INI) about EMFs. The same motion was passed in the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety on 17 February ...
25 March 2009
Do cows sense magnetic fields?
There has been evidence for a while that some birds use the earth's static magnetic field for navigation. But could larger animals such as cows and deer also sense the magnetic field? Two scientific ...
20 March 2009
New SAGE website
SAGE is the UK's Stakeholder Advisory Group on ELF EMFs. It looks at possible precautionary measures to reduce EMFs. In its First Interim Assessment published in April 2007, it looked at EMFs from ...
16 March 2009
Shift work and breast cancer
There are news stories today that the Danish Government is paying compensation to women who have developed breast cancer after long spells working nights. This is because shift work or work at night ...
01 February 2009
New statement on EMFs from Europe
SCENIHR is the European Union's Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks. It issued a previous opinion on EMFs in 2007 and has now updated it (though the conclusions do not ...
01 January 2009
Government response to SAGE: further delay
SAGE is the UK's Stakeholder Advisory Group on ELF EMFs - see much more information on it here. It produced its First Interim Assessment in April 2007. Government made an initial response to that ...

2008

12 November 2008
New study on neurodegenerative disease in Switzerland
A new study has been published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, of neurodegenerative disorders in Switzerland in relation to proximity to power lines. See the press release by the university ...
01 October 2008
Sense about Science October 2008
The charity Sense about Science has published a report called "Making sense of radiation: a guide to radiation and its health effects." On power lines and EMFs, it says: "Pylons and EMFs have ...
01 September 2008
EMF conferences September 2008
The Radiation Research Trust organised a conference on "EMFs - a global issue" on September 8-9 at the Royal Society. There is an account of the meeting on the Powerwatch website and another one in ...
01 August 2008
Controversy over "Reflex" studies
The "Reflex" project encompassed a number of laboratory studies into EMFs, funded by the EU. There are allegations that some of the experiments performed at the medical University of Vienna are ...

2007

01 December 2007
Government reponse to SAGE
SAGE is the Stakeholder Advisory Group on ELF EMFs. The HPA's formal advice to Government about the SAGE First Assessment and the Government response have now been published.
01 October 2007
Delay to Physical Agents (EMF) Directive
The EMF Physical Agents Directive was passed in Europe in 2004, and National Governments had until 2008 to bring it into national law. However, in October 2007, the European Commission announced a ...
01 August 2007
Bioinitiative Report
The Bioinitiative Report has been produced by a grouping which describes itself as "An international working group of scientists, researchers and public health policy professionals".It concludes that ...
01 April 2007
SAGE First Interim Assessment
SAGE is the Stakeholder Advisory Group on ELF EMFs, the body analysing possible precautionary measures for EMFs and providing advice to Government. The SAGE First Interim Assessment was published in ...
01 March 2007
SCENIHR Opinion
SCENIHR is the European Commission's Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks.It adopted an Opinion on "Possible effects of electromagnetic fields (EMF) on human health" in ...
01 February 2007
Beauly-Denny Public Inquiry
In the UK, a public inquiry has opened into proposals to build a new high-voltage power line in Scotland, from Beauly to Denny. EMFs seem likely to feature among other issues. Evidence, including ...

Archive

02 October 2008
Latest News: archive of older items
Items from 2007 onwards are here 2006 HPA REPORT ON MELATONIN February 2006 The Health Protection Agency’s Advisory Group on Non-Ionising Radiation have published a Report on ...