难句译注
1. Because evidence on the subject is inconclusive and often contradictory, it has been hard to decide whether concern about the health effects of electricity is legitimate—or the worst kind of paranoia.
[参考译文] 由于这问题的证据还不是结论性的，而且常常是矛盾的，所以就难以断定有关电力对身体的影响的顾虑是合乎情理，还是毫无根据的怀疑。
2. EPA——U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 美国环境保护署
3． While the report falls short (缺乏，不够) of classifying ELF fields as probable carcinogens, it does identify the common 60-hertz magnetic field as “a possible, but not proven, cause of cancer in humans.”
[参考译文] 虽然报告没有把极低频磁场归类为可能致癌物，但它确实指出通常60赫兹的磁场是“一种虽尚未证实，但可能导致人患癌症的因素。”
4． The evidence is still so controversial that the draft stirred a great deal of debate within the Bush Administration, and the EPA released it over strong objections from the Pentagon and the Whit House
[参考译文] 证据争议性仍然很大，所以报告草案在布什政府内引起巨大的争辩，而环保署无视无角大楼和白宫的强烈反对，公布了这份报告。
5. This is far less than the electric fields that the cells themselves generate.
[参考译文] 这远比细胞所产生的电磁场低的多。
6. …and for decades scientists concentrated on more powerful kinds of radiation, like X-rays, that pack sufficient wallop to knock electrons out of the molecules that make up the human body.
[参考译文] 而且几十年来，科学家专注于更为强大的辐射类别，如Ｘ光射线，其聚合的冲击力足以把电子从组成人体的分子中撞出来。
7. But epidemiological studies, which find statistical associations between sets of data, do not prove cause and effect.
[参考译文] 可是流行病学的研究发现，几组资料在数据方面有所关联，却没有证实其因果关系。
8. a body of laboratory work 一批研究成果。
9. In a blistering 33-page critique of the EPA report, Air Force scientists charge its authors with having “biased the entire document” toward proving a link.
[参考译文] 在长达33页的对环保署文件的十分尖锐的批评中，空军方面的科学家指责，作者歪曲整个文件以证明癌症和电磁场之间的关联。
10. It is astonishing that the EPA would lend its imprimatur on this report.
[参考译文] 令人惊讶的是环保署竟然批准许可这份报告的出笼。
写作方法与文章大意
文章以问答的方式，对比的写作方法，写出了围绕电力是否影响健康——是否致癌因素的两种观点，及其观点的依据。一种是美国环境保护署为代表的：极低频磁场是一种可能但还未被证实的致癌因素，而且无视白宫和五角大楼反对，公布了这份报告。理由是科学证据提出了两者之间的关联偶然性。另一种以空军中科学家为主的观点：电磁场不会诱发或触发癌症，而且以歪曲整个文件来证明两者之关系，批评了环保署。其理由人人皆知。因军队中任一单位都有点——从地面雷达到舰艇飞机防卫系统。
