Spatial Analysis of Childhood Cancer Incidence and Electric Power Line Location in Memphis and Shelby County, Tennessee

Extremely low frequency electromagnetic radiation emitted from electric transmission and distribution lines has been suspected as a possible agent in cancer induction and promotion, especially leukemia and brain cancers in children. This paper examines spatial relationships among childhood leukemia and brain cancer incidence, cancer victim's residences, and electric power line location in Shelby County, Tennessee, using the methods of locational analysis and spatial autocorrelation. Results of these analyses implied that childhood leukemia and brain cancer incidence in Memphis and Shelby County exhibits a nonrandom spatial pattern which may be influenced by factors of urban morphology, including proximity of cancer victim's residences to electrical distribution lines. Leukemia and brain cancer mortality for the population as a whole was also shown to exist in a nonrandom, clustered pattern at the census tract level; however, it could not be conclusively established that electric power lines influenced this pattern.