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Power lines and health

  • 09-02-2010 4:08pm
    #1
    patgill
    Registered Users Posts: 131 ✭✭


    I brought some visitors to Ireland on a trip around the Boyne valley recently, we visited the hill of Tara, Nowth, Dowth and Newgrange and as a bit of ancient Ireland anorak I thought that I had given my friends a good informative day out, however the journey home was taken up with a discussion on the very prominent home made signs littering the Boyne valley protesting about the new transmission lines that will form the southern arm of the North / South interconnector.

    Dont give us Cancer, No pylons, Bury the Cables, No to Cancer. Painted onto everything from bales of silage to graffitti on walls.

    What planet do these people live on and who is spreading such rubbish.

    Over the past few decades over 25,000 studies have been done on the health effects of ELF fields and they have failed to find any evidence of a health risk from these fields.

    What is happening here ?

    Pat
    Tagged:


Comments

  • #2
    paulm17781
    Closed Accounts Posts: 4,858 ✭✭✭paulm17781


    NIMBYism. If one person says they heard that overhead lines cause cancer, everyone will believe it true and protest.

    If it were known they did and one person heard they didn't, no one would believe them. Scaremongering always wins out unfortunately. Just look at that nonsense in Mayo.


  • #3
    L1011
    Moderators, Business & Finance Moderators, Motoring & Transport Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 67,551 Mod ✭✭✭✭L1011


    I can remember the insistance that MMDS would cause cancer being shouted out from poles all across Donegal in the 1990s - the real reason being that they didn't want the licenced MMDS operator to get the illegal deflectors closed down that gave people the BBC for free vs. a few pounds a month (as was) on MMDS...

    NIMBYs will always go for the most outrageous reasons to object to something.


  • #4
    Zoney
    Registered Users Posts: 1,639 ✭✭✭Zoney


    Unfortunately it is probably aggravated by those unfortunate enough to believe the guff about power lines (or Wifi, or whatever else), and in some cases, this mental state can in fact effect real physical symptoms. Plus there are the already ill who blame whatever it is on their condition.

    While I don't support deliberate use of false arguments, and it is a great irritation when things are held up due to NIMBYism, I think critics should realise that most of them would vociferously object if such things were built right next to their house. They may be needed for the greater good (or even local good) but who actually wants them next to them?

    I think it is a bit hypocritical for a lot of people to talk about NIMBYs as some other category of people, when it is merely that nobody is planning something for their own back yard just yet.


  • #5
    KevR
    Registered Users Posts: 3,110 ✭✭✭KevR


    Zoney wrote: »
    While I don't support deliberate use of false arguments, and it is a great irritation when things are held up due to NIMBYism, I think critics should realise that most of them would vociferously object if such things were built right next to their house. They may be needed for the greater good (or even local good) but who actually wants them next to them?

    I honestly wonder if power lines of any significant length could be built anywhere in Ireland without it passing near peoples homes. This comes back to the arguement of there being far too many one-off rural houses spread about the place.


  • #6
    Carawaystick
    Registered Users Posts: 8,779 ✭✭✭Carawaystick


    There's already loads of power lines n Ireland, surely there wold be areas of high cancer rates al along these lines too if there was any link?

    There's a big campaign in North Catalunya to prevent a line connecting the French and Spanish grids - "Non a la THT" is grafittied around the place and there's bumper stickers a plenty there too. so it's not just in Ireland.


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  • #7
    Zen65
    Registered Users Posts: 2,630 ✭✭✭Zen65


    patgill wrote: »

    What planet do these people live on and who is spreading such rubbish.

    Over the past few decades over 25,000 studies have been done on the health effects of ELF fields and they have failed to find any evidence of a health risk from these fields.

    What is happening here ?

    Pat

    These people have no interest in facts, they are making a living from objecting to infrastructure plans.

    Z.


  • #8
    BluntGuy
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2,468 ✭✭✭BluntGuy


    I can understand why people would object, and while I might not agree with it, they have every right to object.

    But I wish people would object with actual facts.

    It reminds me of the whole healthcare thing going on in America at the moment; Obama's proposal has flaws, but why bother highlighting them when you can just call him a "communist" and claim "democracy is ending".

    Fear is power.


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