FOR many years there has been great concern about the possible health effects of electric and magnetic fields. People living beneath high voltage power-lines have attributed a variety of illnesses from depression to leukemia to the effects of these fields. But until now scientists have found it difficult to prove a link.

A recently completed study asked 1063 pregnant Californian women to wear a meter around their waists that measured magnetic field levels every 10 seconds. Women exposed to sudden high peak levels of magnetic field were found to be at double the risk of miscarriage. Perhaps more worryingly, those peak levels could potentially come from hair dryers, microwave ovens, vacuum cleaners and a host of other household goods.

The findings certainly need to be replicated in similar experiments before health warnings are printed on every hair dryer. But, in the meantime, it would be prudent for pregnant women to hand over the hoovering to their husbands and stand well back from the microwave as it cooks their dinner.

According to another study published in the British medical journal Lancet, women who were exposed to the pesticide DDT while in the womb had more difficulties getting pregnant as adults than did those who had no exposure.

“This is the first research that shows it is possible that these exposures can cause problems 30 years down the line,” said lead researcher Barbara Cohn, an epidemiologist at the University of California at Berkeley’s Public Health Institute. The US banned DDT in 1972, after many years of campaigning by environmentalists and health advocates who said the chemical killed birds and other wildlife and harmed humans. However, some nations in Africa, Asia, and South America still use the pesticide, often to fight malaria-carrying mosquitoes. This new study bolsters some scientists’ beliefs that fetuses and children may be especially vulnerable to environmental chemicals. — Samina Iqbal