I think this article is good news. From a personal side, we have a large high-tension powerline running just behind my back property line. It's good to know it isn't likely to endanger my wife's health. However, the article does go to show how difficult it can be to nail down the cause for any type of cancer, be it environmental factors or otherwise.

The annual breast cancer case rate is about 115 per 100,000 women in Nassau County and about 118 per 100,000 in Suffolk County - the two counties that make up Long Island.

The national rate is about 104 per 100,000.

Suspicions that environmental factors - even something in the water - are behind "clusters" of high breast cancer rates have led to anti-cancer fund drives and public awareness campaigns.

But some scientists say the clusters have more to do with the people, not their surroundings. Studies have suggested breast cancer is more likely to strike women who have children late in life or take hormone supplements.

Major studies have failed to turn up significant links to environmental factors. A recent $8 million, seven-year National Center Institute study looked for pesticides in the blood and urine of people on Long Island and found no breast cancer link.

Geri Barish, president of One in Nine, a Long Island breast cancer advocacy group, said she was not surprised by the study's findings. But she said further studies should be conducted on the subject.

"I don't think anyone should be satisfied," she said. "I think we need to push on."

I agree with that conclusion as well - further research is needed. It's just good that one suspected cause for cancer doesn't appear to be a factor after all.