The Great Power-Line Cover-Up: How the Utilities and the Government Are Trying to Hide the Cancer Hazard Posed by Electromagnetic F

This important, riveting expose deserves an even wider audience than Brodeur's previous book on the subject, The Zapping of America . Here the New Yorker writer reports that people across the nation living near electric substations or high-current wires which emit strong magnetic fields are developing cancer at abnormally high rates. Children, especially, who are exposed to power-line electromagnetic fields are at considerable risk for brain tumors, leukemia and other deadly cancers, according to Brodeur, who summarizes a growing body of medical and scientific evidence. The author lashes electric utilities, public health officials and the Environmental Protection Agency for downplaying or denying what he sees as a major health crisis, and he details the efforts of citizens' groups to force remedial action. This urgent book should be on Al Gore's desk as he tackles environmental health problems, and on Hillary Rodham Clinton's bookshelf as she reorders national health priorities. (Sept.)