The National Institute of Environmental Health Services, producers of the report, was directed by the United States Congress to manage the $65 million Electron and Magnetic Fields Research and Public Information Dissemination program. The program's objective was to determine the health effects of electromagnetic fields (EMFs) on people. The NIEHS assessed the world's health data and reported the following:

The risk for leukemia among children who used electric hair dryers at least one a week was 2.8 (times the norm) as compared with non-users and children who used these appliances less than once a week.

Elevated risks were found for children's use of electric blankets, hair dryers, curling irons, video arcade machines, sound systems with headsets and video games connected to TV.

A possible cause of children's leukemia from dryers is that the EMFs produced by most dryers are higher than 2mG (milli-gauss). The Environmental Protection Agency had reported that children's leukemia risks from EMFs are very high when exposed to EMFs above 2mG. Scientists from the cancer registries in Sweden and Denmark also found that both children and adults have very high risks of leukemia when exposed to EMFs above 2mG. The National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurement, under a contract from the EPA, on the basis of a nine-year study of the world's health data endorsed the 2mG limitation. They also recommended that this limitation be a requirement and be implemented immediately at schools and day care centers and that this standard by imposed everywhere within 10 years.

At the 1998 NIEHS meeting, on September 14, 1998 in Tucson, Arizona, the NIEHS was asked when the United States would impose the 2mG standard. Dr. Ross Adey, chairman of the NCRP, said that Congress is not working on it now.

The Department of Energy has measured the EMFs from hair dryers. Their January 1995 report (DOE/EE-0040) contains some alarming statistics. The report showed that, of the hair dryers tested, most produced EMFs well above the 2mG limit. At a six-inch distance, it was shown that the EMFs varied from one to 700mG. At two inches, a working distance that is used by many, the results would be even more alarming with the EMFs varying from ten to 7000mG.

Among the many hair dryers tested some were found to meet the stringent 2mG standard for EMFs. Among them the "ANGELITE" hair dryer was found to consistently keep to the 2mG standard even at two inches, thus reducing the risk of leukemia.

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