Is it safe to live near or under electricity pylons/ grids?

Question

I am looking at moving into a new home. However it has overhead electricity pylons with electricity flowing through it about 50 metres close to the house. The developer states they have done research and its safe. However i am worried about long term risk of cancer.
Please advise

Answer 1

there has been a great deal research on the effects of low frequency (50 or 60 Hz) power lines on the human body. no ill effects have been found. The electro-magnetic effects, decay very quickly as the distance to the cables increases.

In your house and office you have a/c power cables all over, right? the current is not as high as from power lines.

Answer 2

Living Near Electricity Pylons

Answer 3

Yes, it is safe.

In October 2000, Discover magazine listed the twenty greatest engineering blunders of the past 20 years. EMF's made the list. Below is the article's text, along with a link to the magazine's online version of the article.

Currents That Don't Kill
The Clinton administration estimates that American taxpayers have paid $25 billion to determine that power lines don't do anything more deadly than deliver power. In 1989, Paul Brodeur published a series of articles in The New Yorker raising the possibility of a link between electromagnetic fields and cancer. Eight years later, after several enormous epidemiological studies in Canada, Britain, and the United States, the danger was completely discounted. "All known cancer-inducing agents act by breaking chemical bonds in DNA," says Robert Park. "The amount of photon energy it takes is an ultraviolet wavelength. So any wavelength that is longer cannot break chemical bonds. Visible light does not cause cancer. Infrared light is still longer, radio waves longer still. Power-line fields are preposterous. The wavelength is in miles."

Answer 4

I would ask a government agency about that issue. The problem is that no one is sure. The question has been raging for decades. IF a person is sensitive to the magnetic field intensity from those power lines, then it would be best to stay away. There again, how do you know if you are or not. That is the point, no one can say for sure.
For RF radiation, there are guidelines and it has been proven that RF radiation can be harmful, both short term and long term. For low frequency power electricity, the answer has yet to be found, conclusively, one way or the other. If in doubt, live else where.

Answer 5

No it's not safe my uncle fought the energy company for years after all his cows started dying because a 400 megawate power line crossed in the middle of his land. the power company actually gave him chains to put on the back of his tractor so that the electricty could be grounded into the ground. please don't move near any one of these pylons there extremely dangerous even if the power compamy says there not. his wife also died of cancer but the power company said it was heredity that caused if sure it had nothing to do with the electricty. the electricty is always trying to get to the ground and if you happen to be in the way it just goes through you or your cattle and damages your cells.

Answer 6

Thousands of volts travel the wires, all emmit an invisable radiation. It is true that this radiation is harmless to humans; there are exceptions. If you had a visitor with a Pace Maker they may never want to visit. If you are into electronic devices such as radio and TV recievers be aware they may not work as designed and your computer will fail sooner than its normal life expectancy. Did you know that if you threw a wire over a utility line you could plug in your Hot Plate.

Answer 7

Heard a lot that Pylons can cause cancer ,Leukaemia.Especially children....Know up North had big campaign against Pylons in bit of North Yorkshire,the people lost and Pylons put up,except in a few streets very rich people live in.These cables were put under ground..Says it all really..

Answer 8

You are more likely to develop a brain tumor worrying about the effects of nearby power lines than you are by living near them.
The only people I know of that believe that hokum about cancer causing power lines are the same people that assemble at Roswell, New Mexico annually for a meet and greet with the "aliens."

Answer 9

No it isn't safe. You may have headaces and bad sleeping cycles. They suspected to cause cancer too.
If they carry 150KV you must be at a distance least 300 m from them not to be affected from it's magnetic field.

Answer 10

Put it this way, I'd rather live that close to a mobile phone mast instead!!