PEOPLE who live close to high-voltage powerlines during childhood are up to five times more likely to develop cancer, according to Australian research.

The Tasmanian study of more than 850 patients adds weight to the link between electromagnetic fields and cancers such as leukaemia, lymphoma and multiple myeloma. It is still not known whether there is a cause and effect relationship.

Those who lived within 300 metres of a powerline up to the age of five were five times more likely to develop cancer, while those who lived that close to a powerline at any point during their first 15 years were three times more likely to develop cancer as an adult, according to the study published in the Internal Medicine Journal.