Posted on 02/21/2005 12:38:13 PM PST by CharlieOK1
My wife and I are close to making an offer on a house in our neighborhood. Everything about it is perfect, with the one thing I am unsure about being its proximity to power lines. We currently live in the same neighborhood, but in the middle which is not nearly as close to them. This is a huge neighborhood with tons of homes directly underneath them, which makes me think this is me worrying over nothing, and this one would be near but not directly underneath.
I am finding lots of conflicting info. Some sources say that there is "definitely" a link and other say "definitely no link". Risk of Cancer runs in both my wife's and my family (both of our mothers died early of brain tumors), so the last thing I want to do is to increase our risk
Did you try google? Look at science?
This is an interesting vanity.
I don't know the answer but hopefully some other FReeper(s) will. :-)
that's where I found all the conflicting theories. I just know that there are tons of knowledgeable people here, so I thought I would see what people around here thought.
Don't do it.
Since this is on your mind, every time you get a cold, you'll think --- power lines.
And what if you start thinking weird thoughts???
Find another house.
There might be nothing wrong with the place, but you need to think of resale value. I wouldn't invest in something that might be hard to re-sell.
The government wouldn't let anything bad happen to you, and most of the power transmission equipment in the US has been fully licensed by the government. What's to worry about?
I have found great answers here before, so I hope many people will chime in. I have heard the old joke "Did you play under the power lines as a kid?", I just wonder if there is any truth to it.
I've never even heard of a link between overheard power lines and cancer. Where did you hear this?
Personally I dont think there is anything dangerous about power lines, but who wants to get up every morning and look at power lines?
See also: "Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy" -- almost all claims about evironmental factors causing cancer, etc. are examples of this.
"Clustering" (clusters of observations that deviate from average) is a necessary and unavoidable effect of all random processes, and is not in and of itself evidence of a causal relationship.
I have a 4 year old daughter. I would never forgive myself if she got some disease and I thought it was because of the power lines.
I live under some high transmission power lines...I just wear a tinfoil hat.;-)
Seriously, I do live under some lines, and have for 20 years. No member of my family has gotten cancer (or any other illness)yet. But, if you're going to worry about it, you shouldn't do it.
we had this come up when selling our farm 15 years back.(we had huge state power lines put in through our fields thanks to imminent domain)
there's about as much consensus on this as global warming.
Everyone who wanted to get the farm for next to nothing cited these "concerns". Oddly enough, it didn't bother them enough to not want to live there.
There is a lot of disagreement in scientific circles about whether there is a link
I studied a little of this and don't find arguments that it causes cancer or tumors to be compelling.....there may be some correlational studies but no causual link......I would say that it is bunk.........but on the other hand, if you worry about this kind of thing alot, then you will be creating stress hormones all the time, leading to weaker immune system that could in effect make you sick.....but it wouldn't be the power lines......it would be your mind making you ill........you have to work on that first or buy another house.......worry kills far more people I'll be than even smoking........long term that is
Short answer, no. High tension powerlines are built high above the ground in residential areas. There was a study, done years ago about power lines and cancer, specifically lukemia. It was seriously flawed. Basically, a scientist sent post cards to parents of lukemia patients asking if they lived near power lines. This study is flawed because parents who live near power lines would be much more likely to return the survey than parents who do not. The study only compared the percentage of RESPONDENTS who live near power lines, and 'found' that they were higher than the general population. This does not meet double blind standards.
I'm not going to use it as a bargaining tool. Either I will live there or not. I agree about the global warming comment
My neighborhood has power lines and I have not heard of any cancer deaths..I am sure there may be incidences of cancer that I am not aware of because statistically they occur everywhere.
How do you define proximity? Are these wooden utility poles in the backyard or tranmission towers in the right-of-way next to the lot?
If wooden utility poles, then it would not matter 'cause areas where as the lines are underground are still emity a magnetic field all the way up to your meter.
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