What are the health risks of living near pylons?

Living near Pylons and their Power lines

Hundreds of researches worldwide have shown that living near to high voltage power lines and other parts of the electrical transmission network increases your risk of cancer and numerous other health issues.

Many peer reviewed scientific publications have outlined a strong correlation to chronic exposure to electromagnetic fields and adverse health. The number of people suffering from electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS) is increasing exponentially, symptoms include but are not limited to:

• Headaches
• Fatigue
• Anxiety
• Insomnia
• Prickling and/or burning skin
• Rashes
• Muscle pain

The strongest evidence we have so far is by Professor Ahlbom and his studies relating to chronice EMF exposure and childhood Leukemia, where it appears that exposure to magnetic fields higher than 400 nT increases the risk. The risk of childhood leukemia in children not exposed to unusual amounts of low-frequency EMF is fortunately very low – between 3 and 5 cases per 100,000 children – but it increases by approximately 100% in homes where the average low-frequency EMF level is higher than 4 milligauss or 400nT. Electromagnetic radiation starts doing damage from the first exposure. For a long while there may be no noticeable symptoms, but that does not mean that nothing is happening. As the exposure continues, damage could be accumulating.

If the exposure is stopped early enough, the body can recover completely and repair, or adapt to the damage that has occurred.
Your best protection from power line health risks is knowledge, and ultimately for peace of mind you should be contacting an EMF professional to carry out accurate assessments. 

 

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Living near substations and their cables.

Substations are located around all urban and suburban areas. With rural places usually opting for pole mounted transformers in their place. They usually drop down the voltage from 11kv to 240v so that it can be used in homes.

You can break down electromagnetic fields into two parts, quite simply they are; electric fields and magnetic fields. The strength of the electric field depends on the voltage. Electric fields from substation equipment are unlikely to extend beyond the equipment housing, as they are screened by practically all building materials. Magnetic fields are caused by electric current flow. they are exceptionally difficult to stop and usually requires the use of highly permeable metals with very specific installation requirements.

Larger substations are associated with higher EMFs. The nearer they are to a property, the higher the levels of magnetic fields are likely to be inside. There will also be underground cables leading to or away from the transformers. Electric and magnetic fields also come from underground cables. The electric fields will be theoretically zero as they are screened by earth, concrete, sand etc. The magnetic fields, however, are very high near to the cable, higher than from overhead cables because they are closer to you if you picture them in Y plane. There may be a possibility that you have the high voltage cables running underground at the front of your property, which can affect electromagnetic fields at the front of the house, or at the side or back, especially if you have a public footpath by the side of your property.
If there is a substation in the building where you live or work, the field levels on the same floor and the floors above and below could easily exceed the levels at which serious health effects, such as cancer, dementia or depression have been reported.

Food for thought when selling a house

A lot of the information in these blog posts are centred around the health risks associated with EMF exposure and although, there are countless studies pointing to prolonged exposure creating more and more health issues there is the other major factor I think you should take into consideration and that is financial. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, PERCEPTION = VALUE. You may not be concerned by the substation next door or the power lines running at the bottom of the garden but when it’s time to sell there’s a strong chance the potential buyers are red flagging the substation and the power lines. They may pull out before they even bother to have an EMF Survey conducted. So why not be pro-active and have a report to hand so if they are unsure on the substation, power lines or pylon near-by, you can put their mind at ease and move forward with the sale.

Sally Sims and Peter Dent of Oxford Brookes University in 2005 published Sims and Dent a study that showed that the close presence of a substation could reduce the number of potential buyers by up to 63%, depending on the type of property concerned and the size and visibility of the substation. The study in reported that visible substations and cables reduce the value of a property; the percentage reduction depended on the type of property.

Substations close to the house make properties harder to sell unless they are proven safe. Learn about how you can determine your safety level by enquiring about our EMF Surveys.