Electromagnetism

In the wake of revelations that a high electromagnetic field level was measured at a Sherman Oaks elementary school, 11 schools have requested that their electromagnetic field levels be checked, district officials said Tuesday. Two weeks ago, parents at Dixie Canyon Avenue Elementary demanded that the Los Angeles Unified School District move an electrical transformer located next to a kindergarten classroom because of concerns that electromagnetic levels measured there were too high.

The recent discovery of high electromagnetic fields in a Sherman Oaks kindergarten classroom exposed the lack of a concerted program to detect EMF hot spots in city schools. EMF measurements were taken at Dixie Canyon Avenue Elementary School because of a parent's concern about the placement of an electric transformer, not due to the vigilance of school authorities. As the episode revealed, testing for elevated EMFs usually is limited to schools with worried parents or staff.

The recent discovery of high electromagnetic fields in a Sherman Oaks kindergarten class exposed the lack of a concerted program to detect EMF hot spots in city schools. EMF measurements were taken at Dixie Canyon Avenue Elementary School because of a parent's concern about the placement of an electric transformer, not due to the vigilance of school authorities.

Pressured by parents and a kindergarten teacher worried about potential health threats, school district officials will move an electrical transformer away from a bungalow classroom at Dixie Canyon Avenue Elementary School. But the action, announced at a parents' meeting Thursday, did little to allay fears or temper outrage over possible long-term harm from the electromagnetic field of the transformer, which was installed less than a foot from the classroom wall.

Parents of kindergarten students at Dixie Canyon Avenue Elementary School reacted with rage and tears Friday to a report that a school transformer had exposed their children to strong electromagnetic fields--the subject of a scientific debate as a cause of cancer. A group of about 30 parents were told that an electrical transformer outside a bungalow classroom may have exposed 33 kindergartners and their teacher to the electromagnetic field, often shortened to EMF.

Beneath a canopy of steel wires tautly strung between high-voltage transmission towers, the fresh smell of pine greets visitors to a Huntington Beach Christmas tree farm. The farm is one of several agricultural businesses that make their home along the path of electric power lines throughout Southern California. While electric transmission towers are a ubiquitous part of 20th-Century life, their presence evokes a spectrum of emotions.

In a twist to the controversy over the purported health risks caused by high-voltage power lines, a group of San Clemente homeowners is battling a major utility company in court, claiming the wires are ruining their property values. The case, to be heard Tuesday in Orange County Superior Court, pits 10 homeowners in the upscale Mariner's Point neighborhood against San Diego Gas & Electric Co., which owns three miles of high-voltage lines running within 10 feet of some property lines.

The state Department of Education is concerned about high-voltage power lines and steep terrain on a school site being offered to the Antelope Valley Union High School District by a developer. Ritter Park Associates, the developer of the 7,200-home master planned community known as Ritter Ranch, is willing to give a 50-acre school site to the high school district as partial mitigation of the impacts the west Palmdale development will have on the district. Ritter Park is also proposing to pay $1.

Residents who said they feared radiation and electromagnetic waves from a new cellular telephone tower in their neighborhood have won a battle to get the tower removed. Los Angeles Cellular Telephone Company erected the 60-foot transmission pole in May with the consent of the Lakewood Planning Commission. But after the gray tower went up at Paramount and Del Amo boulevards, neighbors complained, saying they had not been notified of the company's plans. After repeated protests by residents, L.A.