
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, July 26, 1990                   TAG: 9007260536
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: B-7   EDITION: EVENING 
SOURCE: Newsday
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

COMPUTER INDUSTRY URGED BY APPLE TO CUT RADIATION EMISSIONS

While insisting that computer terminals present no health hazards to users, a major computer manufacturer has nonetheless called for industrywide standards to reduce levels of radiation emissions from terminals.

"We are encouraging our industry to adopt technical standards which will reduce emissions to the lowest level reasonably achievable," David Nagel, vice president of the Cupertino, Calif.-based Apple Computer Inc., said Wednesday in testimony before the House Subcommittee on Natural Resources, Agriculture Research and Environment.

Although such standards "were not required for public safety," Nagel said, they "may be necessary to achieve the peace of mind of the public."

In the past decade, dozens of scientific studies have investigated whether low levels of electromagnetic emissions - from sources such as electric power lines, computer screens and appliances like hair dryers and electric blankets - were linked to cancer or reproductive defects. So far, the findings remain inconclusive, with scientists often sharply split over the effects of low-level radiation.

This spring, staff researchers at the Environmental Protection Agency recommended that extremely low frequency, or ELF, radiation be designated as a "probable human carcinogen," citing studies in the United States and Europe. But Dr. William Farland, director of the agency's Office of Health and Environmental Assessment, ordered that the recommendation be deleted from their report.

The New York Times quoted Farland as saying that the EPA researchers found a "relatively low but statistically significant effect" of increased cancer in some people, but that the evidence was not enough "to suggest that we ought to change our habits of interacting with electrical equipment at this point."

Nevertheless, Sigma Designs Inc., a Fremont, Calif.-based computer screen manufacturer, announced plans earlier this week to reduce amounts of ELF emissions from its computer monitors. And last year, several manufacturers - including International Business Machines Corp. and Digital Equipment Corp. - began offering models with reduced amounts of very low frequency, or VLF, emissions.

The companies said that the low-radiation terminals did not arise from health concerns, but were adapted to meet the requirements of customers, particularly in European markets.

Apple does not offer low-radiation computer screens. MacWorld, a monthly magazine devoted to Apple's Macintosh computer, devoted much of its July issue to a special report headlined "The Magnetic Field Menace." The magazine tested Macintosh computers for radiation emissions and concluded that users should sit at least arm's length (28 inches) from the front of their screens and four feet from the sides or back of terminals.

by CNB