Nancy Wertheimer died on Christmas day 2007
Dear Colleague: Nancy Wertheimer, who more than any other epidemiologist was responsible for identifying the association between magnetic fields and childhood leukemia, died on Christmas day. We have posted a short obituary at: http://www.microwavenews.com Louis Slesin
January 23... Nancy Wertheimer, who more than any other
epidemiologist was responsible for identifying the association
between magnetic fields and childhood leukemia, died at the age of 80
on Christmas day. The cause was complications following hip
replacement surgery, according to Ed Leeper, her life partner and
long-time collaborator.
In 1979, Wertheimer and Leeper
reported
that children living near high-current electrical wiring had a higher
than expected rate of leukemia. At the time, the association was seen
as a curiosity and was largely discounted and ignored. That all
changed in 1988, when a study
sponsored by the New York State Department of Health supported their
hypothesis. Later work confirmed the link and extended it to measured
power-frequency magnetic fields.
"Nancy was a real
pioneer," said David Carpenter, the director of the Institute
for Health and the Environment at the University of Albany, NY. In
the 1980's, Carpenter ran the health department's New York Power Line
Project. Wertheimer and Leeper's final vindication came in 2001 when
the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified
power-frequency magnetic fields as a possible human carcinogen on the
basis of a large body of epidemiological evidence, all stemming from
Wertheimer and Leeper's 1979 landmark paper. "It is rare that a
scientist opens a whole field of research, which is what Nancy
Wertheimer did," Carpenter told Microwave News.
In
her later years Wertheimer moved on to other projects. "She felt
it was time for younger people to work out what it all really means,
including understanding the biophysical mechanism," Leeper said.
"Nancy always said that the risks we had found are small but
that we may not have identified the real risks, which could, under
certain circumstances, be larger, or that we may not be looking at
the right end points." That is, we still don't understand what
types of fields are responsible and what are they doing.
"Nancy
was fascinated by how the body reacts to magnetic fields,"
Leeper said. "She was a scientist not a public health advocate.
People tried to portray her as a dedicated reformer, but that was not
her style." Once we uncover the biophysical mechanism —the
part of the EMF puzzle that remains unresolved— Wertheimer
believed that new applications could be devised, Leeper said, and
that medical benefits might follow.