4 ms·

There is a housing estate near me that has these lines going right through it. I often wonder what the impact of that is on the people that live there.

hulitu 3y ago
The main advantage is that you don't need to pay for electricity for lighting. Now the disadvantages: most electrical equipment and the human body are not build to function in a continous (as in always present) electromagnetic field.
- ta1243 3y ago
  > Now the disadvantages: most electrical equipment and the human body are not build to function in a continous (as in always present) electromagnetic field. They literally are. The Earth has a continuous magnetic field, and has done for the entire history of the human race
  - fragmede 3y ago
    yes and we'd better be grateful for it - it acts as a shield against cosmic radiation and charged particles from the Sun and the Van Allen belt.
  - saiya-jin 3y ago
    You can't live without salt. Too much of it will kill you quickly. Why is it so hard to understand that both such statements can be true?
    - ta1243 3y ago
      The statement was "most electrical equipment and the human body are not build to function in a continous (as in always present) electromagnetic field" That's a false statement. The implication behind your statement is that the magnetic field from a power line is significantly more than the field from the earth. Earths field strength is 25 to 65 μT [0] A 400kV line according to this [1] says the maximum field is 4uT, maybe upto 6 for some tower designs. That's an order of magnitude less than the Earth's strength, although it is well above the typical daily variations. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth%27s_magnetic_field https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth%27s_magnetic_field [1] https://www.emfs.info/sources/overhead/ohl-calculating/calculator/ https://www.emfs.info/sources/overhead/ohl-calculating/calcu...
  - Turing_Machine 3y ago
    > The Earth has a continuous magnetic field, and has done for the entire history of the human race Yes. We're also getting fairly intense electromagnetic radiation around 12 hours per day. We call it "sunlight", and and the photons are far more energetic than anything coming from power line frequencies. E = hν, and ν for visible light is around 400-800 terahertz, while power line frequencies are 50-60 hertz.
ta1243 3y ago
There was a lot of talk about a link between people living near high voltage lines and leukaemia back in the 90s. There have been various studies which have a correlation, but I don't believe anyone has managed to find a causation. https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn7460-large-study-links-power-lines-to-childhood-cancer/ https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn7460-large-study-link...
- retrac 3y ago
  The correlation is most likely that, power lines are unsightly and people don't want to live near them, so it's actually measuring socioeconomic status. Some sort of electrostatic attraction of pollutants is another idea that gets floated.
swamp_donkey 3y ago
The fields decrease in strength with distance, the square of distance for electric fields. Your cellphone transmits at 1 watt and you put that at a distance of zero from your brain and reproductive organs. If you are worrying about power lines you should worry about cell phones too

hulitu 3y ago

The main advantage is that you don't need to pay for electricity for lighting. Now the disadvantages: most electrical equipment and the human body are not build to function in a continous (as in always present) electromagnetic field.

ta1243 3y ago
> Now the disadvantages: most electrical equipment and the human body are not build to function in a continous (as in always present) electromagnetic field. They literally are. The Earth has a continuous magnetic field, and has done for the entire history of the human race
- fragmede 3y ago
  yes and we'd better be grateful for it - it acts as a shield against cosmic radiation and charged particles from the Sun and the Van Allen belt.
- saiya-jin 3y ago
  You can't live without salt. Too much of it will kill you quickly. Why is it so hard to understand that both such statements can be true?
  - ta1243 3y ago
    The statement was "most electrical equipment and the human body are not build to function in a continous (as in always present) electromagnetic field" That's a false statement. The implication behind your statement is that the magnetic field from a power line is significantly more than the field from the earth. Earths field strength is 25 to 65 μT [0] A 400kV line according to this [1] says the maximum field is 4uT, maybe upto 6 for some tower designs. That's an order of magnitude less than the Earth's strength, although it is well above the typical daily variations. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth%27s_magnetic_field https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth%27s_magnetic_field [1] https://www.emfs.info/sources/overhead/ohl-calculating/calculator/ https://www.emfs.info/sources/overhead/ohl-calculating/calcu...
- Turing_Machine 3y ago
  > The Earth has a continuous magnetic field, and has done for the entire history of the human race Yes. We're also getting fairly intense electromagnetic radiation around 12 hours per day. We call it "sunlight", and and the photons are far more energetic than anything coming from power line frequencies. E = hν, and ν for visible light is around 400-800 terahertz, while power line frequencies are 50-60 hertz.

ta1243 3y ago

There was a lot of talk about a link between people living near high voltage lines and leukaemia back in the 90s. There have been various studies which have a correlation, but I don't believe anyone has managed to find a causation. https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn7460-large-study-links-power-lines-to-childhood-cancer/ https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn7460-large-study-link...

retrac 3y ago
The correlation is most likely that, power lines are unsightly and people don't want to live near them, so it's actually measuring socioeconomic status. Some sort of electrostatic attraction of pollutants is another idea that gets floated.

swamp_donkey 3y ago

The fields decrease in strength with distance, the square of distance for electric fields. Your cellphone transmits at 1 watt and you put that at a distance of zero from your brain and reproductive organs. If you are worrying about power lines you should worry about cell phones too