Adult and childhood leukemia near a high-power radio station in Rome, Italy.
Michelozzi P, Capon A, Kirchmayer U, Forastiere F, Biggeri A, Barca A, Perucci CA. · 2002
View Original AbstractChildren living within 6 kilometers of a high-power radio station showed double the expected leukemia rates.
Plain English Summary
Researchers studied leukemia rates among nearly 50,000 people living within 10 kilometers of Vatican Radio, one of the world's most powerful radio stations in Rome. They found that childhood leukemia rates were more than double the expected rate within 6 kilometers of the transmitter, and both adult and childhood leukemia risk decreased significantly with distance from the station. This adds to growing evidence linking high-power radio frequency transmitters to increased cancer risk in nearby populations.
Why This Matters
This Italian study provides compelling evidence of what many researchers have suspected: living near high-power radio transmitters may increase leukemia risk, particularly in children. Vatican Radio operates at extraordinary power levels that dwarf typical cell towers, creating RF exposures that likely far exceed what most people experience from wireless devices. The distance-dependent relationship the researchers found is particularly significant because it follows a biological pattern we'd expect if RF radiation were causing the increased cancer rates. While the authors appropriately note study limitations, this research adds important weight to a growing body of evidence linking RF exposure to blood cancers. The reality is that regulatory agencies have been slow to acknowledge these population-level studies, often dismissing them due to methodological constraints while ignoring the consistent pattern of findings across multiple locations worldwide.
Exposure Information
Specific exposure levels were not quantified in this study.
Study Details
An ecological study was conducted in Italy to investigate the mortality risk for leukemia among adults and the incidence of childhood leukemia in the population near the Vatican Radio station.
Some recent epidemiologic studies suggest an association between lymphatic and hematopoietic cancers...
The risk of childhood leukemia was higher than expected for the distance up to 6 km from the radio ...
The study has limitations because of the small number of cases and the lack of exposure data. Although the study adds evidence of an excess of leukemia in a population living near high-power radio transmitters, no causal implication can be drawn. There is still insufficient scientific knowledge, and new epidemiologic studies are needed to clarify a possible leukemogenic effect of residential exposure to radio frequency radiation.
Show BibTeX
@article{p_2002_adult_and_childhood_leukemia_2424,
author = {Michelozzi P and Capon A and Kirchmayer U and Forastiere F and Biggeri A and Barca A and Perucci CA. },
title = {Adult and childhood leukemia near a high-power radio station in Rome, Italy. },
year = {2002},
url = {https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12048223/},
}