this article and the blog is very interesting. I’ve been looking for houses on the lower end of the price tag, the last 2 houses i’ve seen were great deals – both of them next to power lines. In the first house, I did not even notice them! but indeed after a friend’s inspection there they were about 20m at the back of the house, and finally explained why a house with a large section was selling for a low price and still had been on the market for 5 months. Mind I say real estate agents do not point these out!

The second house was PERFECT, except for the power lines – x4 high voltage lines 110,000v, the closer 2 within 20 m of the house. The house was perfect though, large rooms, large section, solid construction, beautiful neighbourhood with a harbour and sailing club close by…. so even though i shrugged away from the first house, when you see something you really like – it makes you research further, man I wanted that house.

After reading this article and comments it has made me realise two things –
1) I am mostly convinced that there is no conclusive evidence that there are health effects, although the studies did not study effects on more soft symptoms fatigue? headaches? And was distance from the lines a variable in these studies? Clearly living 20m away, and 200m away would make a difference.
2) The resale of the house is clearly affected if so many people give so much thought on this subject.

And finally, there’s a lot of talk about other sources of EMG waves – but the difference is the amount of time exposed – we use cellphones for ?few hours/day, same with the tv, with power lines the exposure is 24hours a day?

I have decided that although it’s likely 98% of time your safe, there’ll be an element in my mind that’s not fully comfortable, and 20metres is pushing it, I would reconsider if it was 200m away and probably get a meter reading done. So I guess the answer is I would not love it, time to move on…

Raymond if my dream house was 300m away, I would go for it – as long as you get a good price..

A 2005 study in UK, with 39K children in the control group, shows 2-fold of increase risk of leukemia and brain tumor for children who is born within 200m of power lines.
http://www.powerlinefacts.com/British%20Medical%20Journal%20June%202005.pdf

EMFs exposure of 0.2 muT is the recommended by public safety, while >0.4 muT increase the risk at 100%. More interestingly, the statistics show that between 100m and 200m, the relative risk index is the highest, even higher than the children who is born within 50m of power lines. The study is funded by power companies and not fund by anti-power companies sponsor, with proper statistics technique and methods.

I work full time inside live sub-stations, installing, servicing, maintaing all equipment.
I have spent thousands apon thousands of hours working most of the time within a few metres of extremly high voltage lines and equipment, and so have my coleages.
I also grew up living directly under them and have all purchased a house 5 years ago for me and my young family to live in approx 20m away.

I can infact tell you first hand that to my knowlegde and everyone i work with, no one has cancer, everyones children are all born healthy and still are. Infact the healthiest people i know are the people in the high voltage industry.

I can assure you people this stuff is safe, it doesnt look pretty but it is safe, almost.
If you are that worried about e.m.f rthen throw out everything electrical in your home as it will harm you just as much.

You should not make the decision on your house based in any way on a fear of health risk from power lines. If you do not like the way that they look don’t buy the house. If you do not like the buzzing noise they sometimes make when it is wet, don’t buy the house (if you can even hear it). If you think that it will affect your re-sale value – remember, perception IS reality when talking sales – don’t buy the house. Although on that last point, the lower sales price tomorrow is offset by a price break you might be getting today, and that’s true of anything that affects home value.

To the people that have recounted stories of ill health, I extend my sincerest symphathy and wishes for recovery and good health. Patty cited a New England Journal of Medicine report that supposedly showed that within 600m children’s rates of leukemia skyrocket. That article does not exist. There is no data that show that. Her anecdote that she and her family had bad health in one house and it got better when they moved is a statistical sample of one with absolutely no control set. As a matter of logic, let alone unbiased scientific study, Patty’s horrific ordeal does not say anything about a link or non-link with power lines. Pick any number of factors that were true about her previous house and are different with her present house; pick one that has no possible physical link, and then you can say exactly the same thing. If she had red paint in one house but not the other, I could argue that being exposed to the electromagnetic radiation predominantly in the red part of the visible spectrum causes health problems. I have no idea how that could be so, but I could say I have this data point: I know a person who was very sick in their house when they had a bedroom painted red, but when they moved to a house without any rooms painted red, they got better.

Only two or maybe three primary studies indicated a possible correlation with the power lines. These were small and only correlated the proximity of a house to a power line. When further much, more comprehensive studies were done where the field strengths were actually measured, the apparent (but weak) statistical correlation disappeared completely. In a comprehensive study of all children in Great Britain with leukemia in a certain time period compared with control groups of kids without cancer to look at their exposure levels, they found a small negative correlation – there were 5 FEWER cases of leukemia with kids living near power lines. Of course this is way down in the noise and does not mean that power lines protect you from cancer.

A couple of other common sense thoughts: if power lines were causing leukemia (the main claim), why have leukemia rates gone down in the decades since kids exposure these fields have gone up by many orders of magnitude? Also, the field strengths people quote – those are megnetic field strengths in gauss. Often people are talking in terms of 2 or 15 or 40. The earth’s ambient field is 300 to 500 gauss and varies between where you live. You and all other humans for millenia have been bathed in this stuff. We might as well posit that pure water causes cancer. Actually, I have no way of certifying that it does not.

Worry about drunk drivers, falling off of a ladder, choking on your food, heck, even getting shot by your spouse. Even if you take the worst case study on power lines, you are still more likely to die from ANY of those and we have actual, witnessed, causal data on those. If you are chronically sick in your home, do try moving. Could it get worse? Maybe it will get better. Even if we do not know why, if something was making you sick and it stops, go with it and be happy and well!

For the rest of you, dont drink and drive, stay off the ladders, teach your spouse the heimlich maneuver but not how to shoot and I still guarantee the power lines wont kill you first.

I wish good health and prosperity to all and a joyous life in the home of their dreams.

Growing up, my family and I never lived near power line towers or near electrical powerlines. In fact, when my dad was purchasing a home for us when I was just a child, he specifically looked for homes located far away from electrical lines due to his natural paranoia of being close in proximity to such alleged cancer causing things.

The causes of Lymphoma cancers are still unknown, though many researchers have suggested that that they are not genetic. To this day, doctors have indicated that the presence of such cancers in my parents were completely flukish and coincidences..nothing more. Despite my best research, I have never been able to find out why both acquired the same cancer diagnosis during their lives…it could have been the water they drank, or exposure to the same chemicals in the air….frankly, I may never know. But like Jamie indicated, sometimes we try extra hard to find causes for the deleterious effects in our lives…occasionally even coming up with seemingly conclusive conclusions when there are none…

Life can be awfully unexpected sometimes and as much as we may pray for the best, sometimes bad things just randomly happen.

Yes I ultimately purchased that home. It’s currently under construction. I absolutely love the home and the location, and the powerline towers in the distance don’t really deter my feelings about the home. After having performed my own due diligence and research about the supposed effects of EMF waves, I’ve come to my own conclusion that much of the research is bunk. People will ultimately believe what they want and those who believe that these towers cause cancer will never be swayed otherwise.

Everyone responds differently to different environmental conditions. Because you were sick from the EMF doesn’t necessarily mean others will be quite that sick or even sick at all.

No doctor could figure out our problems!

I knew within 2 years that there was a problem, but it took me FIVE years to finally make the connection. It was a terrifying rollercoaster. I would cry over my baby at night, praying for an answer. I started researching, and slowly figured it out. We sold the house and moved on.

Within 3 months of having moved away from the lines, I can tell you that ALL of our health problems were DEFINITELY RELATED TO THE POWER LINES. Today, my daughter no longer wakes up screaming with tummy aches, her skin is beautiful, I have recovered 80% and continue to do so, our marriage is improving, my fatigue is fading, and the list goes on.

Oh, I did all of the major research too. I had our power company come out and test, only to be told that , “everything is within normal limits.” However, there are lawsuits being won all over the United States with powerlines being associated within cancer pockets. The truth is, the human body cannot tolerate even low levels of EMF for a sustained period of time. You will NEVER GET A RESTFUL nights sleep. After several years living there, I would wake up after 10+ hours of sleep, only to feel like a train ran over me!

In a nutshell, I wish someone had shared their experience with me, as I am with you. Don’t let a decade of your life go by as your health deteriorates. In all of the conflicting research, it weighed pretty heavily with me that the New England Journal of Medicine states that at 600 meters, children’s rates for leukeima sky rocket. We lived right on that line. That was enugh for me to leave our dream home that we built. There is nothing worth more than health – and therefore happiness.

Find a SAFE home. Blessings,
Patty

I just bought a house that’s sort of near powerline towers as well…about 2 football lengths away. They don’t really bother me all that much but I think it’s the psychological aspects of them that bother me. I am always bothered by the fact that I think it might bother other people. But then the very fact I have numerous happy neighbors might suggest that this is just a myth and that most people themselves don’t find powerlines or electrical towers to be all that of a deterrence to home buying.