Concern for child's safety near breaker panel.?

Question

A child is sleeping in a room with a breaker panel mounted in the wall just above her head. The panel is a 200 amp service. The panel is in an adjacent room. Is there any concern due to the proximity of the panel. Not concerned about shocks, just some electromagnetic waves. Like what has been rumored about high voltage transmission lines.

The panel is not in the child's bedroom but in an adjacent utility room that shares a wall with the child's room. The panel does meet code for accessability.

Answer 1

This is a good question. It deserves a complete response.

First, the electromagnetic fields from high-tension lines are indeed a matter of concern and controversy. One reason is that the fields from the individual wires do not cancel each out. I won't go any deeper here about why that is, but suffice to say that high-tension wires DO produce significant fields at ground level. There has always been debate over whether these fields are harmful; for one thing, the frequency is only 60 Hz; for another, they have never demonstrably affected cattle that graze under them, so this question remains to be settled.

Now for your situation: The breaker box is fed with single-phase 230 VAC. This produces very low fields AND, because the wires tend to run in pairs, every amp in is equalled by one out, so the fields tend to cancel. Furthermore, they're inside a metal box, which acts as a Faraday cage, which contains the fields.

Bottom line, sensitive instruments might detect a weak field on the child's side of the wall, but it is nothing to worry about. The actual energy exposure from the circuit box is low compared to other sources that we are all exposed to all the time, such as: microwave ovens (shielded, but they can leak); radio and TV transmitters (if nearby); cell phones, cosmic rays, electric motors and even sunlight.

Answer 2

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 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."


By the way: Even though you have a 200-amp service panel, most homes have a maximum demand of around 30 amps.

Answer 3

While I realize that parts of the question are perhaps somewhat confusing;

"A child is sleeping in a room with a breaker panel mounted in the wall just above her head. The panel is a 200 amp service. The panel is in an adjacent room."

I interpret that to mean the the panel is in different room than the one the the child is sleeping in, but is mounted in a common wall. Should my interpretation be correct, then;

"Legally, you must make other sleeping arrangements for the child right away. DO IT TODAY."

Is irresponsibly alarmist, and the thumbs down all the reasonable answers got were uncalled for.

Answer 4

First: The situation you describe is illegal. The National Electrical Code and almost all local and state fire codes require that an electrical service panel be fully accessible in a room that is never locked, and forbid installing a service panel in a bedroom.

Legally, you must make other sleeping arrangements for the child right away. DO IT TODAY.

Second: Your 110/220 volt service panel does not produce "electromagnetic waves" that can harm the child. Forget about that part of it.

Answer 5

If you are concerned about electromagnetic waves affecting your child, then you need to be aware that there is no place in your town that she would be safe from such things. Short of being very deep under ground with no electricity in any form being present, or in a very remote area of the country, or a mile or more above the surface of the earth are you going to find any place that is free of magnetic waves from radio, or electrical systems such as the common power distribution system. Let me put it this way, did you grow up to be what is generally considered to be a normal person. Are you grotesquely malformed yourself from exposure to such electromagnetic waves? You have been, whether you realize it or not. Everyone in this country from about 1920 onward to this point in time have been living in a vast sea of electromagnetic radiation of every kind. So, if you are not a malformed monster from such exposure, consider it likely that your child will not suffer such a fate either, nor will it affect her ability to learn either. No, I am not trying to make your concerns look silly, I do want you to think about it, and examine the world over all and consider other situations that you have concern over and what obvious affects have been observed. None, that you know of, good, then from such a low power panel there should be no cause for concern.

Answer 6

I don't think it's anything to worry about. Without doing any math, I'd say a cell phone held up to your head is much worse. The amount of electromagnetic energy coming through a breaker box at 200 amps and 60Hz is pretty minimal.

Answer 7

1

Answer 8

There are too many back & forths to answer definitely. I would recommend you go to this site & view the medical links to studies to make up your own mind. http://www.webmd.com/
Here's a link page > http://www.webmd.com/search/search_results/default.aspx?query=electromagnetic%20waves&sourceType=undefined
Hope this helps.

Answer 9

hang a picture over the box and move the bed. outta sight outta mind.