Health Concerns
Some large studies, including a large United States study, have failed to find any link between living near power lines and developing any sickness or diseases such as cancer. One old study from 1997 found that it did not matter how close you were to a power line or a sub-station, there was no increased risk of cancer or illness.
The mainstream scientific evidence suggests that low-power, low-frequency, electromagnetic radiation associated with household currents and high transmission power lines does not constitute a short or long term health hazard. Some studies, however, have found statistical correlations between various diseases and living or working near power lines. No adverse health effects have been substantiated for people not living close to powerlines.
There are established biological effects for acute high level exposure to magnetic fields well above 100 µT (1000 mG). In a residential setting, there is "limited evidence of carcinogenicity in humans and less than sufficient evidence for carcinogenicity in experimental animals", in particular, childhood leukaemia, associated with average exposure to residential power-frequency magnetic field above 0.3 µT (3 mG) to 0.4 µT (4 mG). These levels exceed average residential power-frequency magnetic fields in homes which are about 0.07 µT (0.7 mG) in Europe and 0.11 µT (1.1 mG) in North America.
Read more about this topic: Electric Power Transmission
Famous quotes containing the words health and/or concerns:
“Our young people are diseased with the theological problems of original sin, origin of evil, predestination, and the like. These never presented a practical difficulty to any man,—never darkened across any man’s road, who did not go out of his way to seek them. These are the soul’s mumps, and measles, and whooping- coughs, and those who have not caught them cannot describe their health or prescribe a cure. A simple mind will not know these enemies.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Our ideal ... must be a language as clear as glass—the person looking out of the window knows there is glass there, but he is not concerned with it; what concerns him is what comes through from the other side.”
—Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973)