Does anyone know of powerlines causing cancer?

I’ve heard of the ill effects of power lines (along the same lines as the ill effects of mobile phones, television sets and microwave ovens), but never heard of cancer except from the X-Files.

I have not heard of a study confirming that power lines can cause problems of this sort. Sure, there is an electromagnetic field surrounding the power lines, but then, we live in a bath of electro-magnetic particles anyway.

That having been said, I would hate to live near power lines, becaue I hate the noise and the aesthetics are not great, either.

I have an acre of land and the power line is at the other end, away from my house, but I’m not sure that is far enough away.

There are lots of anecdotal stories about proximity to power lines, toxic waste dumps, cell phones, Love Canal, etc and abnormally high clusters of cancer. I always believe in “better safe than sorry.”

Read A Civil Action by Jonathan Harr (made into an excellent 1999 movie with John Travolta playing the lawyer for the defendants).

“W. R. Grace and Beatrice Foods had been dumping a cancer-causing industrial solvent into the water table of Woburn, Massachusetts, for years; in 1981, the families of eight leukemia victims sued. However, A Civil Action demonstrates powerfully that—even with the families’ hotshot lawyers and the evidence on their side—justice is elusive, particularly when it involves malfeasance by megacorporations.”

Sounds like a good book. I will get it next time I’m at the library. I can tell it will piss me off about our justice system.

Although nothing can really be deemed “safe” anymore, I highly doubt that power lines cause cancer. Like cell phones, microwaves, diet soda, and almost everything else out there, I’m sure they give off some electromagnetic waves, but I doubt you have anything to worry about, especially if you live an acre away from the power line.

Do diet sodas give off EM waves? I thought it was the artificial sweetener that was the bad news there. MVs give off low-energy and long-wave radiation (heat.)

I was just grouping all of the seemingly benign things that can supposedly cause cancer. It was a misprint on my part.

I’m gonna run right out with some fluorescent bulbs and see if they light up!

I think the answer lies in electromagnetic fields and cancer

I have been unable to find credible evidence that living near power lines has any adverse health effects.