• Pilots, welders and other workers who are persistently exposed to high levels of electromagnetic fields may be at higher risk of developing deadly motor neurone disease, according to a study.
• Research in The BMJ drew a link between such exposure and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a progressive degeneration of the motor nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord.
• There is currently no cure, and those affected usually die within a few years of diagnosis.
• The disease is very rare, occurring on average among two new cases per 1,00,000 people every year, most typically among individuals aged between 55 and 65.
• “Those whose jobs had exposed them to high levels of extremely low electromagnetic fields were more than twice as likely to develop ALS as those who had never been exposed,” according to the researchers.

Source: The Hindu