The Batelle Study: The Utility Companies Respond

The following section on the batelle study show how the utility company responded. This is an excerpt from Chapter 8, Man Made Electromagnetic Radiation Fields, of the book "Cross Currents: the Perils of Electrical Pollution" by Robert O. Becker.

The Batelle Study:  The Utility Companies Respond

While the New York State power-line study was going on, several other studies were also being done.  Of these, the largest was a study conducted by Batelle Pacific Northwest Laboratories, a contract-research laboratory in Richland, Washington.  This study was funded by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI).  In it, minipigs (genetically small pigs) were exposed to specifically constructed duplicates of 60-Hz power-transmission lines for several generations, with a search done for developmental abnormalities (birth defects).  The study was actually planned as a duplicate of the small study we had done in my lab on rats exposed to 60-Hz electric fields.  The personnel from Batelle visited our laboratory specifically to see our apparatus and discuss our results before they began their own study.

A few months after experimentation had begun, an epidemic occurred in Battelle’s pig population.  The researches reported that they had lost almost all of the animals in the exposed group;  far fewer in the control group had succumbed.  The researchers returned to square one and began the experiment again, but they failed to see the significance of what had occurred.  As discussed earlier in regard to Dr. Guy’s study on microwave exposure of germ-free animals, the chronic stress produced by field exposure makes animals and human beings much ore susceptible to all types of disease.

The first batch of experimental minipigs in the Battelle study were clearly stressed by their exposure to the 60-cycle fields, so they died in greater numbers than did the unstressed controls. When the study finally came to a conclusion, the results were clouded with controversy.  

Battelle claimed that no evidence of harm from exposure had been obtained .  However, many critics,
including Dr, Richard Phillips, who was the original director of the Battelle study (and who subsequently headed the EPA program on electromagnetic fields), charged that positive findings had been obtained, particularly in the area of developmental defects.  

Finally, it was revealed that there had, in fact, been an increased incidence of birth defects and fetal malformations in certain generations of exposed animals.

The controversy that erupted resulted in Battelle’s duplicating the minipig study using rats.  However, despite additional positive findings, the controversy was not resolved. Battelle still insisted that the studies were inconclusive and that further studies were needed.

Recently, Phillips listed the positive findings he believed were obtained from the Battelle studies.  These included the following:  a marked reduction in the level of nighttime pineal-gland   melatonin in rats following exposure to 60-Hz fields for three weeks; a significant reduction in serum testosterone in male rats exposed for three months; changes in the neuromuscular system in animals exposed for thirty days; and an increased incidence of fetal malformations among both rats and minipigs that had been exposed chronically over two generations.  These conclusions are at   variance with the conclusions of the official Battelle personnel.