Rise in Asthma Risk Linked to Exposure to Magnetic Fields During Pregnancy
Children whose mothers had the highest daily exposure levels to electromagnetic fields may have three times the risk of developing asthma, a study says.
The exposure may come from living near power lines, working under flourescent lights or regularly using devices such as hair dryers or vacuums, the research found. Children whose mothers had a moderate level of exposure had a 74 percent higher risk, compared with a group that had less access to the devices, according to research reported online today in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.
The study is the first to find a link between exposure to magnetic fields during pregnancy and risk of asthma in children, lead study author De-Kun Li said in a telephone interview. Previous studies have shown that magnetic field exposure can lead to miscarriages, poor semen quality and immune disorders, the researchers said. Pregnant women need to try to limit their exposure to known magnetic field sources and keep their distance when they are in use, Li said.
“While the replication of the findings is needed, the message here is exposure to electromagnetic fields is not good, and we need to pay attention to its adverse effect on health,” Li, a reproductive and perinatal epidemiologist at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, California, said in a statement.
Asthma is the most common chronic condition in U.S. children, affecting about 13 percent of those younger than age of 18, or 9.4 million U.S. children, according to the paper. Its prevalence has jumped about 74 percent from 1980 to 1996, the authors wrote.
Magnetic Fields
Researchers studied 801 pregnant women who were part of Kaiser Permanente Northern California. Each woman wore a small meter for 24 hours during pregnancy to measure their daily exposure to low-frequency magnetic fields, including microwaves, vacuum cleaners, fans, coffee grinders, copy machines and fluorescent light bulbs. The meters weren’t able to measure high-frequency fields generated by wireless computer networks and cell phones, the authors said.
The researchers then followed the children from these women for 13 years using electronic medical records to see which ones developed asthma. Overall, 130 children developed the condition during the 13 years, the majority were diagnosed by 5 years old, the study showed.
Li said it’s unclear how exposure to these man-made magnetic fields during pregnancy can cause asthma in children. He said the magnetic fields may change the immune system of the unborn child or they could interfere will cell communication while the fetus is developing.
To contact the reporter on this story: Nicole Ostrow in New York at nostrow1@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Reg Gale at rgale5@bloomberg.net
Rate this Page