Determinants of power-frequency magnetic fields in residences located away from overhead power lines.
The Wertheimer-Leeper wire code, originally developed as a surrogate for magnetic-field exposure, has been associated with childhood leukemia in several epidemiologic investigations. However, these and other studies indicate that most between-residence variability in measured magnetic fields remains unexplained by wire codes. To better understand this remaining variability, engineering and demographic data were examined for 333 underground (UG) and very-low current configuration (VLCC) single-family or duplex residences, selected from a database of nearly 1000 residences specifically because their magnetic fields are most likely affected negligibly by overhead power lines. Using linear regression techniques, four factors predictive of the log-transformed residential field were identified: the square-root of the 24-h average net service drop current (this current is equivalent to the current in the grounding system), the log of the number of service drops on the same secondary serving the residence, residence age (four categories), and area type (rural, suburban, or urban). Complete data on ground current and service drops, the two factors with the strongest individual relationships to measured fields, were available for only half of the residences in the sample. However, these data were determined to be "missing at random" according to established statistical criteria. The full-sample or "composite" models thus relied on a method similar to regression imputation, accounting for missing data with binary dummy variables. When applied to the samples from which they were derived, these models accounted for 25% of the variance of the log-spot-measured magnetic field values in the full sample, while models that considered only those residences with complete data (n = 167) explained about 35%. The model validated well against a sample of 201 ordinary low current configuration (OLCC) homes selected from the same database.
Kavet
R
R
Environment Division, EPRI, Palo Alto, California 94304, USA.
Ulrich
R M
RM
Kaune
W T
WT
Johnson
G B
GB
Powers
T
T
D002648:Child; D016208:Databases, Factual; D004560:Electricity; D004574:Electromagnetic Fields / Q000009:adverse effects; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D006798:Housing; D006801:Humans; D007938:Leukemia / Q000209:etiology; D008280:Magnetics / Q000009:adverse effects*; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D015203:Reproducibility of Results