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Real Life EMF Experiences?

Posted by Cliff on from the life-near-high-voltage dept.

ilander asks: "I've been looking to buy my first home recently and found one that seemed perfect. The one downside is that there are power lines directly overhead (in the yard) as well as a high tension power line tower in the empty lot in back, less than 200 feet away from the house. So does anyone have any personal experience working/living near power lines? Aside from the possible health risks, which may or not exist (depending on who you ask), will I run into any problems with my monitors and TVs? What about DSL, cable and my 802.11b network? How about digital satellite reception? Any help is appreciated!"

2 of 163 comments (clear)

  1. Real life induced charge by chrisatslashdot · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I worked my way through college installing sprinkler systems for lawns and landscapes. We used a 16' metal trailer with an expanded steel deck, a steel pipe rack, and several metal lockers. On one job we parked the trailer under high voltage powerlines and got a sizeable shock if we touched the trailer with damp boots or sweaty hands.

    I have also head of people filling a 55 gallon drum with coils of copper wire and stealing power from high-tension wires.

    --


    Simple people talk of people, better people talk of events, great people talk of ideas.
  2. Re:Real-Life EMF Experiences? by dasunt · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Part of the uselessness called 'science' that they teach in schools deals with electrical current and magnetic fields.

    IIRC, the strength of an electrical field is 1/(distance^2). If we have two distances, we can calculate the drop in the magnetic field as follows: (1/(d1^2)) / (1/(d2^2)) or, more simply: d1^2 / d2^2. Therefore, the difference between living directly under the power lines (assuming that the power lines are 50ft up in the air) and the difference between living a few houses away (say 200 ft) would be 2500/40000 or 5/80ths (about 6%). Living a few more houses away (say, 200 more ft) would result in a drop of 2500/160000 or about 1.5%

    The point of all this math and science is that if power lines can cause cancer, it should be rather easy to detect - cancer rates would be high under the power lines, and fall off sharply.

    I have never seen a study with this result, so its probably safe to assume that power lines do not cause cancer.