Document 1: Estimating the Global Public Health Implications of Electricity and Coal Consumption
In a background of increasing health risks associated with greenhouse gases emissions, suggesting the need for new and efficient, low-carbon energy policies, this paper published in Environmental Health Perspectives in June 2011, examined the relationship between electricity use & coal consumption and the effects on health.
Using data obtained from a total of 41 countries, the authors attempted to determine the effects on life expectancy and infant mortality of electricity and coal consumption in those countries. The results obtained indicated that increased coal consumption was associated with increases in infant mortality and reductions in life expectancy, whereas increased electricity consumption did not show the same detrimental effects.
Document 2: Occupational Exposure to Magnetic Fields relative to Mortality from Brain Tumours: Updated and Revised Findings from a Study of United Kingdom Electricity Generation and Transmission Workers, 1973-97
The objective of this study published in Occupational & Environmental Medicine was to investigate whether brain tumours are an occupational risk associated with exposure to magnetic fields. The subjects assessed were circa 84,000 workers of the England & Wales Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB). The two analytical methods used were:
Indirect Standardisation,
Poisson Regression.
Based on the numbers in the study, the expected (national averages data) mortalities from brain cancer would be 146; the actual number was 158. The difference was considered to be too small to conclude that it was significant (0.01% of the total numbers studied). The conclusions therefore were that there were no discernible additional risks of brain tumours caused to these UK electricity workers by occupational exposure to magnetic fields.
