This was debunked years ago.
Power Lines Don't Cause Leukemia, Study Concludes
by Gina Kolata
New York Times (July 3, 1997)
http://www.junkscience.com/news/kolata.html

SHOCKING :)

If 'experts' won't ban the constuction of houses near powerlines perhaps
people will refuse to buy them.
The consumer makes the ultimate choice.

In 1985, while completing my Pre-Med courses, I did an "alpha" experiment. That means there are no pre conceived ideas of the outcome. While in high school I worked for a electric power company. I was constantly near high voltage lines. After about two years, we noticed every member of our crew had developed polycythemia,(high number of blood cells), resulting in high blood pressure etc. When I was a senior in college, I asked to do this experiment. Electrons traveling down a wire,(electricity), create a magnetic field perpendicular to the line of travel. I wanted to see if this magnetic field would affect blood chemistry. Lab rats were placed in non metallic cages and put within the field. The results of the experiment were astounding. There was a large change in blood chemistry of each rat. The number of red cells rose drastically, causing the blood to thicken and raise blood pressure. Anemic rats moved into normal ranges of RBC. It was thought that a second experiment should be done on Leukemia Rats to see if it slowed down the disease. We thought this non evasive technique could be used for infants, the elderly, or those to sick or weak to withstand Chemo or radiation therapy. Unfortunately a second experiment was not done, and I was advised not to publish my findings as there were very "power"ful groups that didn't support my findings. If anyone in R&D or the medical field would like to do that followup experiment, I would be happy to share information on the first one.

5. Denalle,
Fantastic post Danalle. This is why blogging is such a superb idea. It cuts through all that spin and hype by big business and Governments , However can I suggest that you take care that you personal details don't 'leak' as you might get an electric shock.

WELL DONE YOU!!

Mrs T

I'm an electrician. One of the tools of my trade is a 'touchless' volt-probe which flashes and beeps when in range of an electro-magnetic field. This is useful when trying to determine if a wire is 'live' or not.
Just for a laugh, I turned the probe on when I was working under high voltage wires. It began flashing and beeping instantly. The higher I raised it, the faster the activity. (Faster means higher electro-magnetic field, and higher voltage). Even just standing under them subjects a person to an incredible amount of electro-magnetism. Please read #5, Danelle's post. I am not surprised by the results of their tests.

If you think of all the radio waves, electro-magnetic fields etc that we're exposed to...well, think about the chicken in your microwave.....

#1, interesting ending to that article..
"Material presented on this home page constitutes opinion of the author."

#5 Thank you Denalle.

My youngest brother had childhood leukemia. He was ill for the best part of the first 12 years of his life. We didn't know if he was going to survive. Then we moved away from the house which was across the way from a huge electricity pylon. He took a long time to recover, but he did eventually, though he's not a strong person.
My dad always thought it was because of the pylon. He used to go on that you can't have strong magnetic fields around you and not be affected at the cellular level. I think he was right. Either the research wasn't good enough OR (and the more likely) the research knew exactly what would happen but, were kept quiet because of "business interests".
Conspiracy theory? Maybe? But I think that there's more than a kernel of truth to these things!

ScottishPower says if you live below power lines just wrap yer heid in tinfoil you'll be just fine

There is research on this being carried out at the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research in Glasgow. The following quote is from page 51 of their annual report for 2006:

"Using a more sensitive method of detecting DNA
damage involving microsatellite sequences, we have
observed that exposure of UVW human glioma
cells to ELF-EMF alone at a field strength of 1 mT
(50 Hz) for 12 hours gave rise to 0.011 mutations
per locus per cell. This was equivalent to a 3.75-fold
increase in mutation induction compared with
unexposed controls. Furthermore, ELF-EMF
increased the mutagenic capacity of 0.3 and 3 Gy g-
irradiation by factors of 2.6 and 2.75 respectively.
These results suggest that not only is ELF-EMF
genotoxic as a single agent but it can also potentiate
the mutagenicity of ionising radiation. 0.3 Gy
treatment induced more than ten-times more
mutations per unit dose than 3 Gy, indicating
hypermutability at low dose."

So no one should be dismissing the possibility of damage at this stage!

What do you expect as a conclusion.

"Stakeholder" means person or organisation with a vested interest.

Bet there is not many execs of these companies living near or under power lines or telephone masts, yet they tell us they are safe. I don't know if they are safe or not but it makes you wonder why they don't try living near them.

Ban Electrons Now.

I'm serious. I've read this article in its entirety and it is clear to me that electrons is all to blame. There they are, whizzing around in atomics and we all know about atomics, don't we? And then there's Boy Wonder's dad. Now that's scientific. Also it makes Colin P's screwdriver glow. And the MFI threatened Denalle when he or she was a student in America.
If that doesn't make my case I don't know.

#3 Good point, but that won't stop the obscene 135-mile electricity transmission line between Beauly, near Inverness, and Denny, near Stirling. I wonder how many homes are already in it's path?

Strong electric fields can create an electrical flow in another cable, simply because it is close to it. Could a similar strong field create electricity in our bodies? And what would this do to the brain - it functions on very low level electrical energy?

As for stopping new development near pylons - forget it. Human health is quite low on the list of priorities for the councils.

Of course many unscrupulous builders don't care if they can build a cheap house on cheap land and then flog it to the unsuspecting innocents for a mint - job done! Of course local authorities are under remits to provide as much affordable housing as possible in their areasand so land in the vicinity of power cables must be ideal for this purpose - invariably it is cheap after all. All short-termism. More independent research is needed. Of couse if proven (undoubtedly it would be) then some US-style "Class Actions" by those who sadly have developed EM related illness against those responsible for planning and building houses in affected areas would certainly focus the minds of all concerned. Until this happens nothing will change.

What about the workers, the maintainance people who work on these power lines just for us. Has anyone given a thought as to their state of health when every day they are exposed to high voltage work environment?

Based on the fact the brain and body works on electric pulses its not rocket science,Our autistic son goes bannanas when he is under a pylon,this is because of the mercury in his brain from vaccines already buggering up the electric connections through enzymes coupled with more electric currents...VOTE SNP they want to put a pipeline out to see and in it all the electric pylon cables currently weaving scotland,,,simple makes sense ,,why not??Vote snp for it to happen

If you are going to build a house near a HVAC line then you should build a Faraday Cage inside the cavity and across the upstairs ceiling - nothing, including lighting strikes will get through - however your mobile phones will not work inside the cage!

Also, you children should not sleep close the electricity consumer unit - if they do, and there is no alternative, line the inside of the electricity cupboard with metal mesh - just to be on the safe side.

Oh, and I am not joking.

More info?

http://searchsecurity.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid14...

It really is rather complex. We know that radiation can and does kill. we know that it kills by influencing the cells in the body.

We need radiation for numerous reasons and we need electricity for a whole lot more.

All we have to do is take steps to minimise exposure to said radiation - like keeping houses and schools apart from high voltage lines.

However, in a litigious country like the US or the UK were such a recommendation to be made by a government, power companies would be quizzed as to when they found out there was harm in such proximity and, just like the tobacco industry, would be subjected to debilitating retrospective class action lawsuits. We need power just like we need water and air. Societies cannot put their power supplies at risk (Just ask Ukraine about its gas) so we end up with government and big business hand in glove. Hence the suppression of Denalle's findings.

It is, however, also worth noting that the scientific community suppresses findings that don't fit current establishment thinking. The attempts to eradicate and discredit the findings of Professor Holick in the nineties when he came out with proof that sunshine - or rather UVB light - is actually extremely healthful and essential to many functions. The Vitamin D produced also providing protection against many forms of cancer. The present RDA of Vitamin D is too low by a factor of about 10 to 20.

Of course, it is another case where a little is a good thing but too much is extremely bad - just like alcohol - too much sun can have the reverse effect of a healthy dose. But some is essential. Far too many of us in northern climes are Vitamin D deficient but you won't find the manufacturers of skin care and sunblock products promoting this. They are too fond of keeping their profits healthy instead of the population.

Sorry for rambling

#5 Denalle - fascinating post, thanks a lot. Have copied it so I can pass it on.
" researchers from INSERM, Aalborg University, and the Danish Cancer Registry presented the findings of their study of the incidence of cancer in a cohort of 2.8 million Danes aged 20-64 years in 1970. Intermittent exposure to EMF in this population was not associated with an increased risk of leukemia, brain tumors or melanoma. Men with continuous exposure, however, had an excess risk of leukemia. These men had no excess risk of brain tumors or melanoma. A risk of breast cancer was suggested in exposed men but not in women. The risk of leukemia in continuously exposed men was mainly among the job categories of electricians in installation works and iron foundry workers. Besides electromagnetic fields, other exposures in these jobs should be considered as possible etiologic agents. [BENER 10254]"

It can't hurt to play it safe. One suggestion I've seen is that if you are rewiring your house, or moving into a new one, you should consider asking the electrician to organise the mains circuits to enable you to switch off all non-essential circuits at night when you go to bed with one switch.
You will a) reduce your electricity consumption - and the bill and b) reduce the background ' noise' of electro-magnetic pollution.
#23 - good idea! Mobile phones don't work inside this house so I suppose we must be ok.... ;)

As part of our review of planning reorganisation in Scotland, the Scottish Enterprise Party [SEP] has been considering this issue but had not been able to access any relevant research although clearly it exists and we would welcome learning more. If bloggers would care to e-mail info on this to us and any references, etc, please do so to info@scottishenterpriseparty.org

No to Mega Pylons in Scotland.

#23, While a Faraday Cage will keep out high frequency radiation (such as TV and mobile phone signals, neither of which is likely to cause you any harm providing you do not climb the mast and position yourself in front of the antennae) it is going to have no effect on the 50/60 Hz magnetic fields which are the cause for concern here!

Yet another example hysteria leading to nannyism. There is no good evidence that power lines hurt anybody. The report refered to has been dismissed on the grounds that the sample was so small that such results were likely from random chance. We are building less than 1% of our housing stock annually, less than normal replacement, & this is causing massive house price inflation & we are being asked to bring in yet another regulation so government can prevent people doing anything.

#31 Not sure what report you are referring to, but it is as you mention statistics it must be an epidemiological study. The point about the current research at Beatson is that they are measuring actual damage caused to DNA by magnetic fields in the laboratory. This is not something which can be easily dismissed, and is absolutely not hysteria!

The report I am mentioning is the 2005 one mentioned in the article.

In turn I am not familiar with the research you are referring to but while I would not be surprised at some damage being caused within a few inches of very high electromagnetic fields in the laboratory I strongly doubt if the Beatson have found or even been experimenting in the laboratory at ranges of up to 200 metres.

While we're banning 'radiation' (remember to black out your windows folks), we might as well ban di-hydrogen monoxide. A sinister threat that is all around us.
Why dont we? Because THEY want to MAKE MONEY from OUR SUFFERING!!!!!!! 9/11 was an INSIDE JOB!!!!

What a bunch of laughable wackoes.

While there have been some 'interesting' posts, there have also been some which trouble me. Those people, with absolutely no experience in the electrical field (pun intended) are dismissing the claims. This type of person can be dangerous. Would any of you live under high tension lines? I'm not being paid by any special interest group or government. I'm just an electrician who happened to see an article I know something about.
We need electricity, that's a fact. What I'm alluding to is that we should be careful about what we build near those lines. Think about it, has the government or big business ever done anything which put lives at risk in the past? The ideal solution would be underground supercooled conductors, but that's a very expensive proposition. In the meantime, we just need to be careful about what we put near the lines. A 200 metre zone should suffice.

I've always found it amazing that we build high-density "boxes" in this country (an issue in itself) next to motorways and below power pylons.

The latter has been banned in Russia/USSR for decades... I wonder why?!

Needless to say that our politicians are too myopic to ask themselves what the health (mental & physical) implications are in building these rabbit-hutches within such unhealthy environments.

And we wonder why the present unhealthy generation is so hostile and socially-detached from the previous ones!

Time to wake up, folks.

For those of you who are interested in the subject of EMF go to the web site below.

For some of you with short concentration span open chapter 4 and FAQ

http://www.niehs.nih.gov/emfrapid/booklet/youremf.htm

Galacric Cannibal

Thank you everyone for your kind words. Don't you think it is interesting that I also posted a reply to "this is london" on the Evening Standard, at about the same time, and it has never appeared. I followed up twice asking why it was not posted, with no reply to date.
My wife is a nurse, and we have noticed the large majority of the cancer patients admitted to her hospital have all come from the same area of town. This area contains Industry (large electrical usage) etc. She has worked at this hospital for over 17 years, and has been shocked by the ever increasing percentage coming from this area. Granted, there could be other contributing factors,(chemicals etc.) but the one constant thread has been high voltage exposure.
About my first post #5, This experiment was a totally blind experiment to get facts with no preconception to the results. It was paid for by a blanket grant from the Biology Department of the University that sponsers all Biology experiments at that University. My Pre-Med advisor was near retirement and didn't care "whose toes were stepped on" if any. He believed in the truth, whatever it is, should always be brought to light and delt with. That is why when most US Universities have apx 30-35% acceptance rate into Medical school, this university averaged 90-95% acceptance. After the experiment, it was another advisor that advised not to publish.

Right on #5
To further support you, CTV Television did an article 20 years ago on this subject. on a program called W5.
At that time, in Sydney, Nova Scotia; There had been a number of homes purchased by Nova Scotia Power Corp. because each one had high voltage power lines within a few feet running toward the steel plant.
They waited some months before putting them on the market to resell. Realtors had been selected to list these properties, each one with a different agent and then put on the market at what seemed to be a good bargain.
When the program appeared on a Sunday night in the spring of the year and sales were brisk, several purchasers chose to cancel their offers to purchase.
The reason was that it was apparent that the Electro Magnetic Waves were extremely high in each of the subject properties. Tests were done and as I recall some of these houses were quietly rented by the Corporation.
Of interest at the time was the alarmingly high percentage of cancer patients in the area as compared to other areas of the province.
So it is not a surprise that the findings reported here are very similar.
Governments and Large Corporations have to think about the physical well being of the citizens as well as the almighty buck.
It makes one think of the high school physics lab and how the Left Hand Rule relates to the flow of Electro Magnetic Current.
Now if we could only apply this to the derriere of some politicans we would all benefit substantially!

It's amusing how the ninnies can scare people into cutting their own throats. It's probably not a good idea to live under high voltage lines, but the electric and magnetic fields fall off quickly. The typical exposure of people to such fields is much higher from their household appliances (you may ewant to exercise 'prudent avoidance' by moving that clock radio from your side of the bed to your spouses). I would have my doubts about any epidemiological study since it would be virtually impossible to control for other factors (benzene in the automobile exhaust of the cars going down the street in front of the House; pesticide residues; RF exposure from the telly that parents use as a nanny - try watching that at 600 meters Ms. Peterson!). Most of these studies aren't based on actual exposures but hypothetical exposures based on wiring schematics and configurations. And the results tend to show a drop-off in statistical cases as the fields go UP. The real danger here is that Scotland wastes a bunch of capital trying to make sure Big Foot doesn't exist instead of spending the money to find out what may really be causing leukemia clusters.

Here's your homework: Find out the typical background electromagnetic field from an underground distribution line when standing over it. Then find out what the EMF exposure is when standing under the same voltage overhead line (then make a note to self about the proper response when someone says, 'Hey let's underground these lines on our street'). Compare that number with the background EMF levels within the human body. Next, get one of those cute little battery-operated LED book lights and set your cell phone on it (Light turned off). Call your cell phone.

Stop being panicked by Chicken Littles. You're brighter than that.

Good lord, people, the whole "electromagnetism causes cancer" thing has been debunked for years! This is raising it's head again??? This is why teaching science in school is so important, but obviously poorly handled.

For more information, check this article on quackwatch.org:

http://www.quackwatch.org/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/emf.html

And here's a more extensive document at the Medical College of Wisconsin

http://www.mcw.edu/gcrc/cop/powerlines-cancer-FAQ/toc.html

I think every one is missing the real reason/s for the proposed pylons:-
1, To supply the English with our electricity,stealing our birthright again.
2, To cause suffering and pain to the Scottish people yet again,as they have done for the last 300yrs.
Damned devious these English people!
Don't forget SSE are based in Hampshire,thats in England by the way the pylons, cable and erection engineers will also be English,enough to make one to want independance is'nt it?

I would be interested to know if the leukemia rate is higher in Currie(Midlothian) where there is probably not one house further than 200 metres from high tension power lines, and whole streets of houses a lot less than 100 metres away. Some homes have power pylons literally at the end of their garden. Within a 100-200 metre radius of these powerlines there are currently two primary schools and a secondary school. You would think that the local community would notice if there was children succumbing to leukemia on their doorstep, however house prices remain high and there isn't a huge turnover of property. Many people are now second generation residents, which would lead me to suspect that it isn't a phenomenon in this area....and it should be if you consider that the children will be exposed to these E.M.F's day in and day out. I'm not saying that there isn't a link with E.M.F's and leukemia, but what I am saying is that here is a community living very close to powerlines and there doesn't seem to be a discernable 'leukemia hotspot' where you might think there would be one.

You Scotts are behind the times; we've moved on to new things to be worried about; as #1 says this was last decade's scare for those who didn't understand the inverse square law in physics.

The important facts and the interpretation of them aside, this issue is about power - democratic power -and our lack of it. If people in Scotland had real power - and here I do not necessarily mean extra powers for Holyrood, as Holyrood at the moment can stop these power lines - the energy companies would not even be trying, wasting their time. Instead they'd be working hard and creatively on all the alternative national grid connector proposals suggested by the objectors - undersea/underground cables etc - objectors they label as NIMBYS, not real environmentalists as they are.

Because the energy companies know under our corrupt and plasticine participatory democracy, the objectors' rights are non-existent and the power companies through privileged access, huge lobbying budgets, glossy brochures, misleading briefings, Andy Miles, George Reid, Allan Wilson, Brian Wilson, promises of directorships, actual directorships etc, they are more likely to win than lose, despite the overwhelming scientific and environmental case against them. ,

www.youscotland.com is about putting an end to this, putting people not parties in charge of our parliament through the establishment of absolute democratic and participatory rights for citizens. We want to call time on an expensive and ineffectual system which grants the occassional"audience" with a group of smug self- contented "citizen" MSPs, of which at this moment there is precisely one - the most guilty one

Read our Declaration of Scotstoun for a start, and see how three 17 year old students from Glasgow, two via Somalia and Kurdistan, understand more about what is really needed than the collective brains of the all=party/Scottish Office mandarin controlled Constitutional Steering Group (CSG) set up in 1998 supposedly to take care of these matters on our behalf. This was like putting King Herrod in change of Mothercare. It is s time

47. barbour, Perth / 7:46pm 21 Apr 2007

you wrote:
"To cause suffering and pain to the Scottish people yet again,as they have done for the last 300yrs"

Oh yeh ! I am sure you are suffering and in pain in sunny Perth.

Hey man stop squawking, return to Scotland and do something to help achieve independence.

Scotsmen or women like you who abandoned their country are at the worst , hypocrites, and at best a joke.

Have a sunny Perth day

Galactic Cannibal

No. 51 . Nice to hear from you Winston.
I thought your voting was secret and so not subject to any witch hunt.

"The important facts and the interpretation of them aside, this issue is about power - democratic power -and our lack of it. If people in Scotland had real power - and here I do not necessarily mean extra powers for Holyrood, as Holyrood at the moment can stop these power lines - the energy companies would not even be trying, wasting their time."

I like to believe that Scots aren't especially prone to this kind of baseless-scare headless-chickenism. So in an independent Scotland, over-reacting to pylons without evidence wouldnt be any more likely than it is now.

I would hope.