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GreenFacts publishes Power Lines and Mercury studies.
Brussels, 25 November 2004. GreenFacts has continued its rapid publication pace with the Scientific Board’s approval to publish the Power Lines and Mercury studies and the release of the Water Disinfectants and Dioxins studies in Spanish. These summaries, now freely available on www.greenfacts.org, help non-specialists to better access and understand the most reliable scientific information on these longstanding environment and health issues. The GreenFacts Power Lines Study examines “Extremely Low Frequency” (ELF) electromagnetic fields, asking if they can cause cancer, leukaemia or other health effects. Most of the document is based on the “Summary of Data Reported and Evaluation of Static and Extremely Low Frequency (ELFs) Electric and Magnetic Fields”, published by IARC (International Agency for Research on Cancer) in 2002. Mercury is a heavy metal which is known to be toxic. Though mercury occurs naturally in the environment, it is now mainly released by human activities. The GreenFacts Mercury study is based on the "Executive Summary of the Global Mercury Assessment” published in 2002 by UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme). “Both Power Lines and Mercury publications represent literally decades of research on the environment and health impact assessments” declared Jacques de Selliers, GreenFacts General Manager, “We hope the publication of these summaries of the scientific consensus documents will help clarify some of the views in the non-scientific community.” GreenFacts is also pleased to announce the release of its Spanish translations of Water Disinfectants and Dioxins. French translations of these two studies will soon be on-line, as well as the Spanish translation of the Mercury document. “GreenFacts is playing an important role not only in making the scientific information available to non-scientists” remarked Publications Manager, Stéphanie Mantell, “but also available to the non-English speaking world.” GreenFacts studies are presently provided in English, French, Spanish and German. GreenFacts asbl is an independent non-profit organization based in Brussels that publishes on the Internet unbiased, faithful summaries of authoritative scientific documents on various environment and health matters. They have created a communications platform that can summarize complex scientific information and layer it into three levels of ascending detail. GreenFacts was formed in December 2001 by stakeholders from the academe, industrial groups and environmental NGOs concerned about the need for more impartial information for non-specialists on these issues.
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