Press Release

Government refuses to protect young lives, says leading children's cancer charity

16 October 2009

CHILDREN with LEUKAEMIA is the charity leading the campaign for a ban on building homes and schools near high voltage overhead power lines. Today the charity has condemned the Government for failing to act on recommendations and advice from leading scientists, professionals and MPs in their call for action to protect children from the potentially harmful effects of living close to high voltage overhead power lines.

A building moratorium on new homes and schools close to high voltage overhead power lines was identified as the "best available option" for obtaining a significant reduction in exposure to extremely low frequency EMFs by SAGE, the Government's own Stakeholder Advisory Group, in its report published in April 2007. Following that announcement, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) called on the Government to legislate to restrict the building of new homes and schools next to existing power lines.

The Government will not introduce the ban, instead relying on lesser recommendations such as working with the HPA to deliver public messages and supporting the optimal phasing of overhead power lines, which the charity says will do nothing to reduce public exposure to EMF.

Chairman of CHILDREN with LEUKAEMIA, Eddie O'Gorman, lost two of his children to cancer. He believes that the death of his son from leukaemia may have been associated with the electricity substation in their back garden and said: "Until more research is carried out we expected the Government to follow the precautionary principle by either banning building, or at the very least issuing formal guidance. An association has been found between childhood leukaemia and living close to high voltage overhead power lines and we need a clear message from Government that they will protect our children. Today's announcement is an attempt to sweep the matter under the carpet."

The Government has been under increasing pressure to act following the publication of the Draper Report in 2005, which reported that children with a birth address within 200m of a high voltage overhead power line had a 70 per cent greater risk of developing leukaemia.

In July 2007, a Cross-Party Inquiry of senior backbench MPs recommended that Government introduce a building moratorium within at least 60 metres of existing high voltage overhead power lines.

Caroline Hampden-White from CHILDREN with LEUKAEMIA said: "It has taken the Government two and a half years (since the SAGE report was issued) to decide to do nothing to reduce public exposure to EMF. As scientific evidence continues to emerge in this arena the time for precautionary action to protect children is now!".