Dangers of Extra-High AC Voltage Transmissions (500 kV)

If it could be proved that high voltage AC transmission was harmful there would be mass panic and many power companies would be sued and would go out of business overnight and therefore no electricity at all. So we will never know the answer, despite the fact that it has been a long running topic in the UK where it has been alleged that even high current applications at 230v can also be harmful.

Certainly with exposed open air transmission cables there is nothing to cancel the electromagnetic waves as they radiate out in decreasing strength concentric circles around the conductors. Where the concentric fields from conductors of different phases intersect each other, there will be some cancellation, bit obviously this will not happen directly below or towards the outer conductors.

Underground cable are usually encased in an earthed steel armour of some kind and the earthed containment cancels out the electromagnetic waves.

Personally, when I was younger I was an electrical fitter in power stations for 15 years and generally I did feel more tired and lethargic when working on the or near the generators or HV transformers, but I cannot associate that with electromagnetic fields alone, the noise and the heat also played a role in this perception.

If you were working within the fields of energized apparatus, I would have thought that the associated ozone would have given you more energy (while simultaneously destroying your tooth enamel) but maybe I'm wrong.

During my career, I just always told my younger colleagues that ozone would make them "horny".

Unfortunately, I don't think there is anybody who can make this issue become clear.

The fields are commonly called electromagnetic (or EMF) but there are, in fact, two distinct fields of concern; electric and magnetic. The electric (electrostatic) field results from the system voltage and can be effectively shielded and suppressed. The magnetic (or electromagnetic) field results from the flow of current through the conductors and cannot be easily or effectively shielded.

There have been many studies, by many individuals and organizations, in several countries over the last 30 years yet, to my knowledge, there is still no indisputable evidence that electric or magnetic fields either cause or increase the risk of childhood leukemia and cancer, adult brain cancer, miscarriages, birth defects, etc.

The first suggestion that electromagnetic fields at low frequencies (0 - 300 Hz) were linked to cancer came in 1979, when Nancy Wertheimer and Ed Leeper published the results of a study of childhood deaths from cancer in Denver, CO USA (1). Those epidemiological studies were subsequently deemed to be flawed. Several other studies were done in the early 1980s but the one taken most seriously was published in 1988 by David Savitz, a professor at the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina, USA. He repeated the Wertheimer and Leeper study with better epidemiological methodology and got similar results, relating a heightened risk of childhood cancer to the presence of certain configurations of power lines associated with strong magnetic fields. Savitz took spot measurements of fields, but found no direct correlation between contemporary spot field measurements and cancer risks. (1)

At this stage, I believe most risk analysts would recommend "prudent avoidance"; taking simple steps to reduce the exposure to EMF in daily life without going overboard.

In addition to:

(1) "Today's view of magnetic fields", an article published in the December 1994 issue of IEEE Spectrum; a magazine published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.

Other references to which you might want to review are:

"Electromagnetic fields: the jury's still out", IEEE Special Report, IEEE Spectrum, August 1990.

"Are power lines unsafe?", IEEE Spectrum, July 2000.

"Electrophobia", Eleanor R. Adair, IEEE Power Engineering Review, December 1996.

"Scientific approach to EMF welcomed", electroindustry (NEMA) May 2002.

"Electric and Magnetic Fields: Measurements and Possible Effects on Human Health, from Appliances, Power Lines, and Other Common Sources", Leonard, Neutra, Yost, Lee; Special Epidemiological Studies Program, California Department of Health Services, Berkeley, CA USA.

These are just some of the articles from my files and they should still be available in online archives. A web search would likely result in hundreds, if not thousands, of similar studies and articles.

Good luck.

Hi Bluestone. In the Scandinavian countries Norway and Sweden it is against the law to erect a house within 50 meters of an overhead power line, likwise it is against the law to place power lines within 50 meters of a house. This is to minimise the effects of EMF and radiation from power lines. I have a friend who can detect these effect even when blidfolded, she is suffering from EMF sensitivity. Sometimes she can be very ill because of this, so I put special wall paper up and covered the windows in a fine meshed steel. The results have been alarming, now as long as she remains in her house she is not affected by this phenomonen. Another revalation was when I change all of her power saving light bulbs back to incandecent bulb, that also helped. She cannot use a mobile phone, be too near the TV and has changed to gas for her central heating and cooking. All of this has helped her a great deal, now she only notices the effects of EMF when she is near to powerlines, radio masts and mobile telephone antenna. For many years the doctors told her that she was making it up and took no notice. Then I read a story in a newspaper about someone else who was also suffering from these sme effects, I visited this person and noticed that in the field behind his garden there was a mobile phone antenna disguised as a fir tree. He had not noticed this antenna, I advised him to complain about this to his local council, which he did, and it turned out that the mobile phone company had not placed the antenna in the correct place according to the councils recomenations. This was removed and the person who was affected doe's not suffer the effects anymore. Spencer.

Interesting. Thanks. I have read of this phenomenon but have never know anyone personally who was hypersensitive.

However, as you noted, it is important to realize that overhead power lines are not the only source of exposure to low frequency magnetic fields. In addition to natural sources, virtually every electrical appliance and device within the home emits some low level radiation. One of the early concerns with exposure in the home was the use of electric blankets then later, water bed heaters, microwave ovens, etc. I think overall exposure is probably increasing with the increasing number of electronic devices both in the home and outside as folks spend more time in front of computer monitors and in close proximity to other electronic devices, including cell phones.

The 50 meter limit probably falls into the category of prudent avoidance.

Hi Bluestone. Yes you are right, and the phenomonen is called electro-smog. There is a book about EMFs and electro-smog called "Power Watch Handbook". It is written by Alasdair and Jean Philips, ISBN 0 7499 2686 4, You can e-mail the publisher for a copy, info@piatkus.co.uk I found this book last year, many years after I first met my friend who suffered from it, and it gives you the iformation needed to protect yourself and home it. I discovered how to do this myself because I had leared about farraday cages and such. Spencer.

I discovered as a young child (7 or 8yrs) that while riding my bike , or walking under electric primary's I could feel a tingling sensation. Its kind of like when the hair on your arms stands up when you hear a really good song, or feel a cool breeze on a sweltering day. I'm still sensitive to transmission lines today. I don't feel I have any adverse affects. But then again I don't live under them.

Personally I think they should move. I mean the power proximity probably means they need little energy for warming their place, but the price is not worth it.

A very dear person once said to me when bad things are happening it's time to high tail it out'a there.

Without this most important human trait of self-preservation instinct kicking in, all you have left is Darwin selection happening

Hi dbdwoods. You said that people should move! Well here in the UK it would be nearly imposible to sell your house if it is too near an overhead power line, as most people here know about the dangers of them. I know of a house in my village that is worth $400,000, and it was eventually sold for for $100,000 because a power line and pylon is within 25 yards of this house. Another thing is that here in the UK we have not got the room to keep building more houses.

Hi:

Indeed our dear guest is from "- North Jakarta, Indonesia" just possibly they have more real-estate? The point is that when something bad is happening to you and your family, when possible moving away from the danger to you and yours is beneficial. These guys have been living there long enough to have more than one child it looks like. The first kid should have been a clue?

Then on your note, living within yards of intense power radiation just sounds dangerous. Why would people build so close? Why would people move to where they can here the popping and electrical discharge of high energy electric right in their own back yards? I have been faced with the hard choices in my history also, I have tried to adjust my lifestyle to accept good choices and leave the bad ones behind, and messed up occasionally myself. I know it ain't easy.

I Dun Know?

Hi dbdwoods. In answer to your qustion. In the UK you can not just build a house anywhere and most houses are built in large estates by a contractor. The other thing is that most people did not know about the dangers of high frequency power lines, and politicians just would not tell them. Most people bought there house many years ago when the EMF scare was unheard of, these days you will not find a single new built house anywhere near a power line. Of course, our guest cannot prove that the power lines have caused his family's problems, and I doupt if he has even heard about EMFs until today. Spencer.

Hi: look at this earlier contribution:

"Hi Bluestone. In the Scandinavian countries Norway and Sweden it is against the law to erect a house within 50 meters of an overhead power line, likewise it is against the law to place power lines within 50 meters of a house. This is to minimize the effects of EMF and radiation from power lines. "

Governments do know of the issues, they are so wrapped up in their deliver it at the most profit and least headache that they do not recognize individual personal rights. The knowledge is quite old, just not universally recognized. Heck in most countries they are still allowing the pushing of tobacco products, talk about oversight.

See it really is all black and white; just a lack of recognition for this problem leads to this mess up.

hi dbdwoods. I totally agree with you. Spencer,

Dear Scapolie (Spencer),

First,i would like say thanks for everyone who help me to give some opinion & advises.

I think i agree with your comments "^{The other thing is that most people did not know about the dangers of high frequency power lines, and politicians just would not tell them. Most people bought there house many years ago when the EMF scare was unheard of, these days you will not find a single new built house anywhere near a power line. Of course, our guest cannot prove that the power lines have caused his family's problems, and I doupt if he has even heard about EMFs until today. Spencer."}

The electricity problem in Indoneasia is very serious,other thing in most of islands can not have a full capacity of power line for their islands,sometime they only get 12 hrs per day electrical power.Btw,until now its become a hot isssue in Indonesia,but new early warning for us is now we`d better not built a home near (around 50 meters?) a extra high AC voltage (even a 150kv or 750kv),but the fact is now so many building have built in under Extra high Voltage tower line.

Did you have any better technical advise (not relocate the house) to reduce extra high voltage effect to protect the people who live under/has home near this tower?

My regrads,

Imam Yulianto-North Jakarta,Indonesia (a junior engineer in DC electrical for Telecommunication applications)

Hi Guest. To protect your self and your family against EMFs you can paint the inside walls with aluminium paint before the colour is painted on, otherwise, you can coat the walls with a paper that has a carbon layer in it before you paint. The windows have to be covered in a plastic film which has microscopic metal particals in it. Contact: www.powerwatch.org.uk You can also contact: www.lessemf.com/emf-shie.html This last contact will tell you and/or sell you the necerssary equipment to protect you and your house from EMFs. Spencer.

Hi there in the UK we are just waking up to possible problems of low frequency high voltage supply lines. In the dark days when hardly any one had an electrical supply to their home, there was no reason to think that in years to come we would suffer any ill effects. With the ever increasing demand for power this is now a very real problem.

As we are biological creatures with very low voltage circuits for our nervous system and brain any high strength field either electrical or magnetic could very easily over whelm us. The electric chair was developed because it was thought back in the dark days that a dead mans brain could be made to function if it could be stimulated by an electrical current soon after his death. The thinking was that the massive electric current 2 to 5 amps at 2400volts DC would penetrate the skull and fry the brain of the prisoner being executed. this has now been shown to be a false assumption. It is now proved that the poor dummy is cooked before dying they say the current stops the heart and kills by this means. (not true). Getting back to the over head power line issue it has been found that a field gradient of as little as 50v/mtr can cause problems for some people. The big power lines of over 132,00v have to be above a height where this could occur. I have stood at a distance of 100 feet from a line at 270,000V and on a damp day you could feel the electric field raise my hair. Even the 25,000V lines that run our trains can cause a sensation when standing on the platform. Several people have been electrocuted because they got too close either by having some thing conductive (one person had a carbon fibre fishing pole, another a golf club, they just got careless.) Recently a stupid idiot got on top of a train an was thrown off by the force of the distarge. I used to cycle to work along a main road where a 132,000V line crossed it and when it rained I could feel the near distcharge from the line. In places they put a mest guard under to prevent the big lorries from drawing down a distcharge 400,000V is pretty frightening. Your worst case would be a heavy rain storm and an earth quake bringing down a big pylon near to houses. The potential for disaster is very great. The risk of fire and electrocution would be high. With the new digital TV services starting up all over I am sure that the health problems will increase greatly. The impulse from the transmitters will cause many more cancers.

Hi BrainWave. Way back in the 1930s a frenchman was conducting a series of experiments in infra sound and low frequent electricity. He found that both these phenomonen could kill living beings, including humans. During the second world war the Germans built a machine based on these principles to use as a weapon, it was not very effective as it was difficult to focus on the target. Then during the early 1970s I saw a film clip produced by some French scientists using infra sound to kill some rats, the rats that were shaved of all their hair died very quickly, the rats which had their hair left on escaped death. Then during the mid 1970s I worked in a shipyard in Norway, I happend to notice that if someone hit a very large steel bulkhead with a large sledge hammer there was a very low frequent sound. When this happened I became quite ill, feeling nausea and disorientated, and I was not the only one to be affected by this. I also noted that if I stood within 2 meters of a large welding machine I had the same experience. I reported this to the management who promtly orded a group of specialists from Oslo to look into the problem. Their findings were that I and many others were suffering from the effects of infra sound transmtted by the welding machines and the reverberating sound of the steel plates. These infra-sounds were in the region of 3Hz to 7Hz, and it is a known fact that such frequencies are damaging to humans. The reason it is damageing is that infra-sound and low frequent electricity are both energy that is absorbed by living cells. These living cells expand when exposed to this energy phenomonen and is converted to heat energy, thus frying a human or other animal if it is prolonged. Spencer.

Yes industrial processes can be dangerous in many ill understood ways. The most dangerous low frequency is 14Hz and of course and multiple of this. I have noticed when having an ultra sound scan 1 -5Mhz range I could feel localised heating as the probe moved about. I know that pregnant women can harm their baby if they have too many scans during their pregnancy. The low frequency 14Hz can cause massive ruptures because it can tune to our natural resonant frequency. If you have drunk some beer or other gassy substance it can make you feel very ill. The other thing that can make you feel sick is if the frequency matches that of you inner ear.

You ought to read up on the work of Royal Rife ,his work with the universal Microscope along with studies into killing patheogens with selective radiated frequecies, different bacteria or virus, different frequecy to kill.

I believe that he cured cancer with his machine and Identified 16 Htz as particularly damaging for human life.

I heard that the drug companies got him killed because he wouldnt sell patents.