CONTROVERSIAL pylon plans for North Yorkshire must be stopped, a leading women's group has urged.

The North Yorkshire East Federation of Women's Institutes is calling for action to be taken after new research findings suggested a strong link between overhead power lines and breast cancer.

The research, which originated in the USA, claims that magnetic fields, found near power lines, reduces production of a brain hormone called melatonin, which prevents the growth of breast cancer cells in the body.

The findings led Vale of York MP Anne McIntosh to call for a moratorium on all new pylon construction.

National Grid, which manages the electricity network, is waiting to start work on constructing a new overhead line through North Yorkshire, between Lackenby and Shipton. In the light of the research, the chairman of the WI Public Affairs committee, Janet Wright, is calling on National Grid to take notice of this new evidence.

She said: "We are urging the medical profession to include measurements of melatonin levels, when they assess women at risk from breast cancer.

"We also call on National Grid to take notice of the accumulating evidence of health risks associated with electric and magnetic fields, and to abandon the Picton-Shipton powerline."

A spokesman for National Grid said: "We understand the concerns which health issues can raise in the minds of the public.

"We treat the subject of electric and magnetic fields from overhead lines and high voltage equipment very seriously.

"However, the advice of the statutory watchdog, the National Radiological Protection Board, remains that on the basis of the published research into EMF, it does not represent a risk to public health."

Updated: 11:49 Monday, October 29, 2001