RESUMO
OBJECTIVE: To determine the incidence of cancer in Odijk and the connection if any of the occurrence of cancer with the presence of a high-voltage cable constructed there in the fifties. DESIGN: Descriptive. SETTING: Public Health Services, South-East Utrecht, the Netherlands. METHOD: Data on the numbers of new cancer patients in Odijk over the period 1985/'96 were obtained from general practitioners, from the Integral Cancer Centre Mid-Netherlands (IKMN) and from the Foundation Dutch Study Group Leukaemia in Children. The classifications were according to age and to distance from the home to the high-voltage cable. The electric and magnetic field strengths in dwellings situated less than 28 m from the cable were calculated. RESULTS: Cancer was diagnosed in 131 patients in the period 1985/'96, 127 adults and four children. The cases in 3 of 4 children occurred in the period 1993/'96. Over the period 1990-1994, the registered cancer incidence did not deviate from the expected incidence in the IKMN region, nor from the mean incidence in the Netherlands. Neither for adults nor for children was a relationship found between cancer and living in the vicinity of the high-voltage cable. The exposure to the electric field of persons living in houses near the cable was maximally 7%, and exposure to the magnetic field maximally 6.5% of the maximal liminal values applied in the Netherlands on recommendation of the Health Council. CONCLUSION: No relationship existed between development of cancer and the presence of a high-voltage cable.