Hidden Hazards of the Airwaves

By Philip Elmer-DeWitt

Louis Slesin's stories have a tendency to shock. Like the one about the 23 workers at the Bath Iron Works in Bath, Me., who got "sunburns" one rainy day when someone on a Navy frigate flicked on the ship's radar. Or the trash fires that start spontaneously from time to time near the radio and TV broadcast antennas in downtown Honolulu. Or the pristine suburb of Vernon, N.J., that has both one of the world's highest concentrations of satellite transmitting stations and a persistent -- and unexplained -- cluster of Down's syndrome cases.

For nearly a decade, Slesin, 43, has been collecting these and similar tales of electromagnetism seemingly gone awry and publishing them, meticulously researched and thoroughly documented, in an obscure bimonthly newsletter called Microwave News. His circulation is tiny (just over 500 copies), but he is well known in scientific and professional circles. And lately his message -- that there may be adverse health effects from the radiation emitted by power lines, computer terminals and other technologies vital to the information age -- has become front-page news.

In the current issue of Microwave News, Slesin has printed what may be his greatest scoop: the key paragraph of a two-year Environmental Protection Agency study recommending that so-called extremely low-frequency fields be classified as "probable human carcinogens" alongside such notorious chemical toxins as PCBs, formaldehyde and dioxin. The recommendation, which could have set off a costly chain of regulatory actions, was deleted from the final draft after review by the White House Office of Policy Development. "The EPA thing is a stunner," says Paul Brodeur, a writer for the New Yorker. "It's a clear case of suppression and politicization of a major health issue by the White House."

It was Brodeur who first brought Slesin's work to widespread public attention. Much of the information in Brodeur's influential book Currents of Death was gleaned from the files of Microwave News. In a chapter titled "Watchdog" he describes Slesin's unrelenting coverage of the landmark studies linking low-level electromagnetic fields to the increased incidence of miscarriage, birth defects and various forms of cancer, especially brain tumors and leukemia. In the July 9 issue of the New Yorker, Brodeur returned to the subject with a detailed story about a cancer cluster in Guilford, Conn. Over a period of 20 years, four residents of a street with nine homes on it developed brain tumors, and most of their neighbors suffered recurring headaches. The common denominator: they all lived near an electrical substation and transmission lines owned by Connecticut Light & Power.

Slesin and three assistants publish Microwave News out of a three-room Manhattan apartment that used to be his home. In addition to major reports on the hazards of electric blankets, microwave ovens and medical imaging systems, a typical 16-page issue will summarize the latest health studies, monitor ongoing litigation and track various government activities, like this week's congressional hearings on the status of federal research efforts. Subscribers include utilities and communications companies and officials in some 30 government agencies.

Not everybody appreciates Slesin's work. Despite having a reputation for evenhandedness, he is seen in some industry circles as a crusader. "He's not alarmist or inflammatory," admits Bruce Dickerson, executive director of the Center for Office Technology, an industry-sponsored clearinghouse for information about VDT safety. "But he does represent a constituency that is not in the mainstream of science. ((The government agencies concerned with worker safety)) certainly don't believe there are adverse health effects."

For Slesin, the fact that the government has not taken the issue seriously is part of the problem. In his opinion, the studies linking higher incidences of cancer to low-frequency electromagnetic fields raise questions about the whole electromagnetic spectrum, including radiation from such ubiquitous sources as broadcast antennas, walkie-talkies and cellular telephones. But despite all the warning signs, there has been almost no research on the effects of long-term low-level exposure. "The U.S. has gone to extraordinary lengths not to study this problem," says Slesin. "It's as if we're terrified of what we might find out."