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I have thought it irironic that some people worry about high voltage transmission lines in their, yet carry a high intensity electromagnetic radiation source ne

I have thought it irironic that some people worry about high voltage transmission lines in their, yet carry a high intensity electromagnetic radiation source next to their privates most of the day- cellphone in their pants pocket. Neither situation has been proven dangerous in a scientific study. But the former is occasionally protested by scientifically ignorant and later overlooked by feeelings of convenience.

saagarjha 8y ago
Believe me, many parents love to bring up phones as a “source of radiation” to get their children to stop using them.
- toss1 8y ago
  Reminds me of a story a friend told me from the days of working IT supporting 10BaseT coaxial Ethernet cabling, where if you broke the line at any one T-connector, the whole set of nodes on that cable went offline. One secretary was annoyed by something about the line under her desk and kept disconnecting it despite requests. He finally came up with the idea to explain her that the cable end "leaked radiation" when unplugged -- technically true, just not at levels relevant to human health. From that day forward, no more issues...
Retric 8y ago
High voltage lines have been demonstrated to harm plant life. With a few different proposed methods of action, IMO the most interesting is extracting pollution from the air the same way ionic air purifier‘s work. This will sometimes show up as significantly lower plant growth under them which reasonably makes people nervous.
- dekhn 8y ago
  Can you provide links to high quality studies that would convince a skeptic of your claim? I am unable to find studies demonstrating strong causal relationship between high voltage lines and reduced health.
  - Retric 8y ago
    'plant life' not human health. I am not sure what you would consider high quality, but here is the method of action in a very neutral setting: 'The mechanism of pollution of insulators is governed mainly by: the pull of gravity, wind forces, electrostatic forces on neutral and charged particles, aerodynamic and surface factors of the insulators, humidity, particle size, and chemical composition' https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00022470.1979.10470923 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00022470.1979.10...
    - dekhn 8y ago
      wrong link? article is about preventing corrosion on transmission lines. There is nothing about plant life here.
ataturk 8y ago
If either were really a problem we would definitely all be ill by now.
jjoonathan 8y ago
Dude, your cell phone is a couple of watts of non-ionizing RF at approximately 0 duty cycle. Under what standard does that count as high intensity? The latest "mice in a microwave" study I've seen shows a need to bathe mice in the human scale equivalent of 200W, 100% duty cycle RF before they see a measurable effect and even then there are strong reasons to supect p-hacking (e.g. effect is barely significant, they don't control heat input, effect vanishes in female mice, etc). The hypothesis "RF causes cancer" is easy to test (it's easy to crank up the RF dose) and, if correct, would be extremely rewarding for the researchers involved. It has, unsurprisingly, been extensively investigated -- so if it's true, why does every paper that I read with a positive result seem to have cheated in order to obtain it?
SigmundA 8y ago
I find it strange people worry about a 300 milliwatt gigahertz radiation source while walking around outside under a nuclear fireball emitting terahertz radiation at 1000 watt per square meter that is known to cause cancer.

saagarjha 8y ago

Believe me, many parents love to bring up phones as a “source of radiation” to get their children to stop using them.

toss1 8y ago
Reminds me of a story a friend told me from the days of working IT supporting 10BaseT coaxial Ethernet cabling, where if you broke the line at any one T-connector, the whole set of nodes on that cable went offline. One secretary was annoyed by something about the line under her desk and kept disconnecting it despite requests. He finally came up with the idea to explain her that the cable end "leaked radiation" when unplugged -- technically true, just not at levels relevant to human health. From that day forward, no more issues...

Retric 8y ago

High voltage lines have been demonstrated to harm plant life. With a few different proposed methods of action, IMO the most interesting is extracting pollution from the air the same way ionic air purifier‘s work. This will sometimes show up as significantly lower plant growth under them which reasonably makes people nervous.

dekhn 8y ago
Can you provide links to high quality studies that would convince a skeptic of your claim? I am unable to find studies demonstrating strong causal relationship between high voltage lines and reduced health.
- Retric 8y ago
  'plant life' not human health. I am not sure what you would consider high quality, but here is the method of action in a very neutral setting: 'The mechanism of pollution of insulators is governed mainly by: the pull of gravity, wind forces, electrostatic forces on neutral and charged particles, aerodynamic and surface factors of the insulators, humidity, particle size, and chemical composition' https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00022470.1979.10470923 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/00022470.1979.10...
  - dekhn 8y ago
    wrong link? article is about preventing corrosion on transmission lines. There is nothing about plant life here.

ataturk 8y ago

If either were really a problem we would definitely all be ill by now.

jjoonathan 8y ago

Dude, your cell phone is a couple of watts of non-ionizing RF at approximately 0 duty cycle. Under what standard does that count as high intensity? The latest "mice in a microwave" study I've seen shows a need to bathe mice in the human scale equivalent of 200W, 100% duty cycle RF before they see a measurable effect and even then there are strong reasons to supect p-hacking (e.g. effect is barely significant, they don't control heat input, effect vanishes in female mice, etc). The hypothesis "RF causes cancer" is easy to test (it's easy to crank up the RF dose) and, if correct, would be extremely rewarding for the researchers involved. It has, unsurprisingly, been extensively investigated -- so if it's true, why does every paper that I read with a positive result seem to have cheated in order to obtain it?

SigmundA 8y ago

I find it strange people worry about a 300 milliwatt gigahertz radiation source while walking around outside under a nuclear fireball emitting terahertz radiation at 1000 watt per square meter that is known to cause cancer.