Working with Industry

CHILDREN with LEUKAEMIA, working in partnership with the energy industry (National Grid and the Energy Networks Association) and the Department of Health, are equal funders of the SAGE process (the Government’s Stakeholder Advisory Group on EMF).

In 2004, the Health Protection Agency recommended that the Government ‘consider the need for further precautionary measures’ to reduce public exposure to EMF.

light tubes

In response, the Government set up a Stakeholder Group (SAGE), which has been examining EMF issues since 2004 and, in 2007, issued their first report to Government.

The SAGE First Interim Assessment identified a building ban on new homes and schools near high voltage power lines and vice versa, as the ‘best available option’ to reduce exposure to EMF from power lines. However, SAGE could not recommend this option explicitly to Government as there were substantial costs to the energy industry involved.

The Government asked for advice from the Health Protection Agency on the SAGE report and the HPA responded to both the SAGE Report and the Cross Party Inquiry Report in October 2007, recommending that ‘the attention of local authority planning departments and the electricity companies be drawn to the evidence for a possible small increase in childhood leukaemia which may result from siting new buildings very close to power lines.’

The Government can comply with this recommendation in two ways:
- to issue information only
- to issue planning guidance preventing further building near power lines

The Government was due to announce any precautionary measures they intend to introduce by the end of December 2008. Due to “a busy parliamentary timetable” no statement has yet been made.