Browse Forums Building A New House 1 Sep 24, 2009 9:46 pm Hi all, Looking at estates, and there is one close to us (Botanic Ridge, for those playing at home) that has brilliant size blocks, for a reasonable prices, but they are quite close to a set of power lines. The closest blocks are 50 meters away. Does anyone know of any studies or research into the risks associated with living close to them? All I can find is old studies from the 90s in Britain. TIA ~W~ Building our forever home - Lilium Estate Clyde - Land due May 2019 Built our first home - Pakenham - 2011 Re: Risks associated with living near power lines? 2Sep 24, 2009 10:20 pm Sadly there is nothing conclusive out there, just research that leans one way or t'other. Personally, given the distances from the actual wires, I think that the risk is negligible. The risk from mobile phones I think is higher. Given the choice tough, I wouldn't do it, why tempt fate! DanC Re: Risks associated with living near power lines? 3Sep 24, 2009 11:32 pm Nothing to worry about. Everything these days apparently causes you harm. On that note, time for a frothy, smoke and a meat pie. Re: Risks associated with living near power lines? 4Sep 24, 2009 11:43 pm Risks associated with living near power lines....having them fall on top of your house!! It happened to a relative of mine! BTW...i thought new estates have them underground these days...ours do Re: Risks associated with living near power lines? 5Sep 24, 2009 11:58 pm I'm assuming you mean high voltage power lines, not regular residential power lines. Our block is about 300m from the high voltage lines and this is as close as I would live. the section of the estate that we bought in starts quite close to them, we chose one of the blocks furtherest (is that a word ) from the lines. saying that, it obviously doesn't bother lots of people - there are streets and streets of houses that are built directly under the power lines. I think it's a personal choice as to whether you feel comfortable living that close to them though. Re: Risks associated with living near power lines? 6Sep 25, 2009 7:43 am I wouldn't buy it.... Some research suggests that about 500m is the minimum safe distance. Re: Risks associated with living near power lines? 8Sep 25, 2009 10:19 am I knew a family that lived next to the big high voltage power lines and every member of the family bar one developed leukemia. Doctors believed it was directly related to the close proximity of the power lines. There may not be any definite evidence but do you need evidence to feel weary? Such radiation cannot be good for you in my opinion. Even if there is no real evidence that they directly harm you, why expose yourself and your family to higher levels of radiation?? Another close friend had years and years of trouble conceiving. After moving house (away from power lines) was able to conceive about 12 months later after radiation levels dropped. Coincidence? I don't believe in them. Besides the obvious (in my opinion) health risks those lines are really ugly and cannot understand why anyone would choose to live near or under them when you can choose to house yourself away from them. Also, a family member of mine used to live within 300m of them and their neighbour had two people in the house develop leukemia. She quickly sold the place. No evidence but why risk it. It's personal choice. Some people just don't care. Life is; then you tell yourself a story. Re: Risks associated with living near power lines? 9Sep 25, 2009 3:00 pm I wouldn't buy near power lines either if I had a choice. Not because there's any evidence that the power lines themselves cause harm, but living near them would increase the whole family's stress levels, which is proven to cause harm. Just believing something might be dangerous is enough to have it affect your life. Metricon Riva 33 - http://herlihy-riva.blogspot.com Site start 15/03/2010 - Handover 23/12/2010 9 months and 8 days (284 calendar days) from site start to handover Re: Risks associated with living near power lines? 10Sep 25, 2009 3:26 pm Just my 5c worth on this one. In Austria (the one in europe) they actually have enacted laws in place that dont allow any schools, kindergartens, daycare centers within 1/2 km (500m) of the huge H.V. powerlines and the massive steel towers that support them. This is govt regs. This says to me that there may be certain danger to young developing kids. Aside from that the asthethics are just totally offputting. You will also hear them hum and crackle at the end of summer when the weather starts to get cold and the dust buildup gets moist from the dew but there hasnt been any rain to wash away the dust off the lines and insulators. a neat trick that can be sometimes done is to take a fluro light tube with you to the lowest part of the lines near the ground. sometimes the elctromagnetic radiation field is strong enough and will actually cause the fluro tube to light up in your hand. Looks great at night. Me personally I would avoid the powerlines like the proverbial plague. cheers Roger Re: Risks associated with living near power lines? 11Sep 25, 2009 3:29 pm btherl I wouldn't buy near power lines either if I had a choice. Not because there's any evidence that the power lines themselves cause harm, but living near them would increase the whole family's stress levels, which is proven to cause harm. Just believing something might be dangerous is enough to have it affect your life. Yes, stress is harmful, but why would people who knowingly choose to live near power lines be particularly stressed? It seems to me that they'd be quite calm and happy, given that they surely must believe that they're in no danger. The problem with studies is that they never take the genetic makeup of the participants into consideration. One person can smoke and live to be 100, while another smoker dies of cancer in their 40s. Does that mean that smoking doesn't cause cancer? Nuh-uh. It just means that the first person probably has extremely good detox genes, and that the other possibly has fairly crappy ones... The smoking is still a trigger for the disease. Living near powerlines falls into the same category. There are some things in life you have no control over. This isn't one of them. My two cents worth. Re: Risks associated with living near power lines? 12Sep 25, 2009 3:53 pm Hi there, I don't know about the evidence but I live directly under a high voltage powerline, at the moment and have been for twenty four years. Neither I or my family have ever developed anything....knock on wood . But again if I had a choice I would double think where I would live. Eliza Re: Risks associated with living near power lines? 13Sep 25, 2009 4:02 pm eliza_doolittle Hi there, I don't know about the evidence but I live directly under a high voltage powerline, at the moment and have been for twenty four years. Neither I or my family have ever developed anything....knock on wood . But again if I had a choice I would double think where I would live. Eliza ... does your radio buzz ? Re: Risks associated with living near power lines? 14Sep 25, 2009 4:15 pm Personally I wouldnt live within 500m of a HV lines. You have issues of emf interfernce on electrical itesm, radios tv etc but I know of 3 boys who all grew up near powerlines, had different herritage etc and all 3 got some form of cancer. I have also read many articles outlining similar incidents. I also wouldnt live on a main road or near a major arterial as the fall of exhaust particals is also know to cause cancer in kids just my opinion Blog: http://funmore-residence.blogspot.com/ Forum: viewtopic.php?f=31&t=21109 Construction Start - 19/09/09 Slab Poured - 21/10/09 Frame Completed - 25/11/09 Lockup - 22/12/09 Fixing - 22/02/10 Handover & Moved In 30/04/2010 Re: Risks associated with living near power lines? 15Sep 25, 2009 4:26 pm There are many discussions on the forum about power lines... here is one... Ed viewtopic.php?f=1&t=13951 "ECOECO" At 'EcoEco', we design windows, we design the best windows, we do it for you, so that when you’re happy we are happy. Tel. 1800 326 326 Re: Risks associated with living near power lines? 16Sep 25, 2009 7:40 pm The induced emf cant be good for you. This is an interesting story on a fluro display under HV lines in the UK... http://www.pureenergysystems.com/news/e ... index.html quote from article "Pears also described another phenomenon. "As you walk up to the tubes, which are buried in the ground by about 6 inches, the tubes go out. When you move away they light up again. This is because your body is a better conductor of the electromagnetic radiation than the air is, so your body shorts out this potential to the ground." Personally it was the first thing on our list when looking for a block land, not to be able to see them from any part of the estate.... Made it hard, particularly in Melb S.E. Re: Risks associated with living near power lines? 17Sep 26, 2009 9:08 am ed @ EcoClassic There are many discussions on the forum about power lines... here is one... Ed viewtopic.php?f=1&t=13951 Thanks Ed, really really helpful! I should have searched "high voltage" not power lines! Okay, so the idea is that we shouldn't buy a block at the back of the estate, within say, 200-300 meters of the power-lines, but the ones at the front of the estate, that are further then that should be okay. I completely agree with the idea of stress levels. I'm sure I'll love the estate (because I do, it's beautiful, except for the HV PL) and I'm sure I'll love our big block, but I would always, always wonder if we were in danger. I'm having some choice issues between a estate closer to were we are now, where the blocks are more expensive and smaller, but in our suburb, and this estate, where the blocks are bigger, and either around the same price, or cheaper (nearer to the power-lines). But that is another post for another day!!! Thanks for the input guys! ~W~ Building our forever home - Lilium Estate Clyde - Land due May 2019 Built our first home - Pakenham - 2011 Re: Risks associated with living near power lines? 18Sep 26, 2009 11:00 am High tension power lines have been part of the environment for a considerable time now. This has allowed plenty of time for longitudinal studies to be done. These show that the health effect, once differences in health outcomes due to economic circumstances have been controlled for, are not statistically significant. In other works, being poor is more likely to cause a health effect than living near power lines. But, let's put it all in perspective. How many parents on this forum allow their children to use mobile phones? Where are the longitudinal studies for mobile phone use? People don't want to live under HT transmission lines because they make noises and look scary, but the evidence for their safety is stronger than that for mobile phone use. And don't get me started on the way so many people ignore the link between health, diet and life style, but are happy to make alarmist comments about HT transmission lines! We know that public perception of danger is not rational. Some of the writers in this thread seem happy to illustrate how true this is. Pfiff Finally making progress again, with a clothesline (yippee) and some much needed little things being attended to over the holidays. 40 C on New Year's eve? We love our a/c! Re: Risks associated with living near power lines? 19Sep 26, 2009 11:46 am Fiffaro High tension power lines have been part of the environment for a considerable time now. This has allowed plenty of time for longitudinal studies to be done. These show that the health effect, once differences in health outcomes due to economic circumstances have been controlled for, are not statistically significant. In other works, being poor is more likely to cause a health effect than living near power lines. But, let's put it all in perspective. How many parents on this forum allow their children to use mobile phones? Where are the longitudinal studies for mobile phone use? People don't want to live under HT transmission lines because they make noises and look scary, but the evidence for their safety is stronger than that for mobile phone use. And don't get me started on the way so many people ignore the link between health, diet and life style, but are happy to make alarmist comments about HT transmission lines! We know that public perception of danger is not rational. Some of the writers in this thread seem happy to illustrate how true this is. From your comments in the previous thread and in this one which appear to be unreasonably biased, and have led me to say I assume you are in the industry. I have said, in my experience and to the best of my knowledge, living in close proximity to HV power lines is unsafe. Diet, mobile phones, poverty... HV power lines can be dangerous, don't risk the chance that living close by is safe, if you are wrong the consequences may be grave. Ed "ECOECO" At 'EcoEco', we design windows, we design the best windows, we do it for you, so that when you’re happy we are happy. Tel. 1800 326 326 Re: Risks associated with living near power lines? 20Sep 26, 2009 12:44 pm shackonthehill Just my 5c worth on this one. In Austria (the one in europe) they actually have enacted laws in place that dont allow any schools, kindergartens, daycare centers within 1/2 km (500m) of the huge H.V. powerlines and the massive steel towers that support them. This is govt regs. This says to me that there may be certain danger to young developing kids. Aside from that the asthethics are just totally offputting. This is the same country, Austria, where I had to pay for my child's immunisations, but taking a 'medicinal' mud bath is paid for by the health system. Does this mean that mud baths are more efficacious than immunisations? Governments make decisions in order to be re-elected, not because there is good science behind it. It only supports the thesis that we are irrational beings when it comes to what we are scared of. Pfiff Finally making progress again, with a clothesline (yippee) and some much needed little things being attended to over the holidays. 40 C on New Year's eve? We love our a/c! Our standard double-glazed window is tested to achieve, Rw 34, and can be glazed to suit Rw 39. The price is good too... 3 9433 Would also like an opinion from anyone that has used xcem over hebel for floors. Thanks 1 13254 2 15443 |