Is it safe to live close to electricity sub-stations? What are the risks?

Question

We are thinking of moving to a house which is about 50 foot from an electricity sub-station (inside a smallish brick built building - approximately garage sized) owned by a national electricity company. You sometimes see on housing estates or fenced off close to houses with signs that say things such as "danger - risk of electricution" etc.

Are there health risks with living so close to such a substation - particularly for children e.g. leukemia/cancers? Is this the same risk as living near electricity pylons?

I have found it difficult to find information on this - are there any Yahoo groups re this topic? Thanks

Answer 1

There have been many studies that failed to show a substantial risk, however, the tests are inconclusive and difficult to evaluate accurately; experiments must be conducted over dozens of years!

Whatever the risk, and I am sure there is one, would be heightened by proximity. The inverse square rule follows for energy received at a distance from an electromagnetic source.

What this means is, if you double the distance you are from a power line, you 'quarter' the radiation exposure you receive, roughly. Of course, real life situations blur perfect calculations, sometimes a lot, but it would take a surprisingly short distance increase, away from the power source to mitigate its effect greatly.

Answer 2

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Is it safe to live close to electricity sub-stations? What are the risks?
We are thinking of moving to a house which is about 50 foot from an electricity sub-station (inside a smallish brick built building - approximately garage sized) owned by a national electricity company. You sometimes see on housing estates or fenced off close to houses with signs that say things...

Answer 3

Living near that substation is exactly as risky as driving and walking and living under the lines that feed power to it and deliver that power at a reduced voltage to you. The voltage on all those skinny overhead cables that crisscross town that you never pay attention to is the same as the substation voltage, and they never hurt anyone (unless they get damaged) so I wouldn't worry about it.

This by the way is a slightly different topic than the scare of living under the huge long distance transmission pylons with the long spans of drooping cable, those lines operate at 100,000 volts and above. The substation voltage is going to be in the low thousands and you merely need to keep kids from climbing fences and firing B-B guns etc around those.

Answer 4

No, Cancer.

I'm not sure on the workings but I don't feel right when I get too close to a substation, If you put a bit of aluminium foil in the window facing the substation it will get little holes in it, I've forgotten what causes these, I think its the same for astronaughts beyond the earth's protective magnetic field. It doesn't tke a genius to guess that this is not good for you.

You can't find much info on it, I think "inc" publish a newsletter along these lines. It is not widely publicised due to the low levels of knowledge on the subject and number of houses sited next to these substations, you can imagine..

Answer 5

As long as you don't go inside it and touch it you should be safe, the cancer scare from electric power lines has been found to be unfounded (it turned out the original study that appeared to find a link was flawed) so there's really nothing to worry about.

Provided of course you or some you'd prefer to live doesn't get inside and touch something carrying a high voltage but there are plenty of other ways for your kids to kill themselves so in the scheme of things a locked substation is not going to be much of a worry (and it shouldn't be too long before they know enough not to even try to go in there).

Answer 6

I dont think the dangers are mainly disease orienteted but rather physical due to high electrical energy. I think you will find thast the are will be a little more charged compared to were u maybe no and that you run a high risk of getting an electric shock. should anything disturb the plant you house might indeed have too much electricity passing through it and i dont think its safe place for kids in that instance. also electric plants are generally noise due to rapid movement of ions and electrons in the transmiter wires. if you have another option i would encourage you to take it especially for the kids sake because an electric plant is highly dangerous.

Answer 7

well the reason for health risk is that all bodies of matter have an electro magnetic field, witch is the pattern of irons travelling through and around the body. like a magnet has a field we do to. and when you are near a highly conductive body,especialy one with electricity being pushed through it or being boosted, as in a transformer../ its field is far greater than yours and is traveling farster, also a different combination of positive and negative irons. this disrupts your delicate field, and your flow of energy oround and through your body is altered, therefor changing the way your cells are reconfigured when they reproduce.... hence the disorders your explained in your question .. so with this understandind you can make a choice.. i would say its NOT safe../ even though i am sitting next to the computer right now . i think a transformer is alot more powerfull, and the thing is with this topic you dont know if its changed you or not because theres no way of knowing if thats what caused any problems that may arise

Answer 8

All harmful emission from sub station will have a prolong effect on human being.

Reports on harmful effect has been suppressed for reasons best known to politicians.

Emission(microwave) from tel-co communication towers were also suppressed.

There was a Russian reports and experiments carried out on Hand phone.

An raw egg was placed between 2 hand phones and
both phone were set on communication mode .

Temperature rise vs time was monitor on the raw egg.

After some time heat build up on the egg as recorded by a thermometer.

After one hours the egg was literally cooked.

This is the side effect off using hand phone on prolong period,but this report was also suppressed,similarly report on harmful effect on electrical equipment were also suppressed.

Answer 9

I assure you, the biggest danger to human life and health at the type of SUBSTATION you describe is from the birds that perch on the overhead lines.

Answer 10

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