In the path of power
People have issues with the aesthetics of hulking power pylons, but there is also the fear of potential health risks, writes Melanie Carroll.
People may be happy to live next to a cemetery if it ticks the boxes of school zones, commute times and not being built out. But what about a power pylon?
About 11,000 people have one or more Transpower assets, such as pylons, on their land, according to the national grid operator. Another 19,000 have conductor spans (that is, power lines) over their property.
People have had issues with the aesthetics of the hulking towers, but there is also the fear of potential health risks.
Martin Gledhill of EMF Services, which measures electric and magnetic fields (EMFs) for clients, gets two or three calls a month, mostly from people wanting to buy a house. Some are looking at houses right next door to a pylon, others are up to a few kilometres away.
The most common fear people have is about whether they cause cancer, Gledhill said.
‘‘One lady who was looking at a house near a power line was quite happy, but she said everybody she talked to said the first word they said was ‘cancer’,’’ Gledhill said.
‘‘The unanswered question, which has been unanswered for over 40 years, is whether children who are exposed to higher than average levels of magnetic fields have an increased risk of leukaemia.
‘‘All we can say with certainty is that if there is a risk, it’s got to be very small.’’
That is backed up by the Ministry of Health, which says the EMFs (also known as extremely low frequency fields, or ELFs) when you’re within 50 to 100 metres of many power lines are the same strength as the fields found in homes and offices.
‘‘Even if you’re standing right below a power line, the fields are well below the public safety limits recommended in New Zealand and overseas,’’ the Ministry of Health says on its website.
Gledhill has worked in the field for 30 years, including more than two decades at the Ministry of Health’s National Radiation Laboratory. His observation is that people’s understanding of the health risks of EMFs has not changed over that time.
‘‘The questions are pretty much the same, and I would say the level of interest is about the same now as it was 30 years ago.
‘‘I think it’s probably natural that people want to be sure that they’re doing the right thing, and they don’t want to put their families at risk in any way, and they just want to be absolutely certain.’’
He talks through the situation with people and advises them to read the information on his website. He can also come and measure the EMFs for a client. However, people can also hire the small piece of kit needed for measurements.
He hasn’t recommended against the purchase of a house because of the proximity to a pylon or power lines.
‘‘I always say this is what the health research says, this is what the recommended limits are, this is what you’ve got here, ultimately it’s for you to decide and do something that you’re comfortable with.
‘‘Even if I say look, I really don’t think it’s going to make any difference because the house is more than 100 metres away, they still want to have that extra bit of reassurance that the measurements will give them. I guess a lot of it is human nature.’’
But he does advise people who are really stressed to think carefully about the purchase if they are likely to continue worrying.
He gets a lot of calls from Auckland, and also Waikato, which has quite a few lines running through it.
When the national grid was established in the 1950s and 1960s, towers and lines were placed in what were then rural areas.
‘‘Over time urbanisation has seen towns and cities expand with houses now built right up to transmission lines,’’ a Transpower spokeswoman said.
Since 2008, local councils have been responsible for making sure corridors beneath Transpower lines are kept clear. However, before then, residential development did happen under the lines.
Transpower is removing lines and towers where it can during upgrades of the existing grid. For example, it is looking at removing 17 kilometres of line and 59 towers between Albany and Henderson in Auckland, affecting 229 landowners.
Generally once a fortnight Transpower gets an inquiry from a member of the public about the health effects of living near its power lines.
Neville Falconer, of Tauranga-based Tremain Real Estate, said in his experience pylons weren’t a major issue for property buyers.
‘‘I haven’t heard of pylons being an issue for people for quite a long time,’’ Falconer said.
‘‘Certainly for a purchaser looking at a property, they need to be well aware of what’s around the property, and so it would be important for the salesperson to make them aware if it’s not completely obvious.’’
Informed decision-making was key.
‘‘The main thing is that buyers are appraised of all the relevant information that’s available. A salesperson can’t know what they don’t know, but everything they reasonably know they have to provide knowledge of to any purchaser so they can make a wellinformed decision, that’s very important.’’
‘‘All we can say with certainty is that if there is a risk, it’s got to be very small.’’ Martin Gledhill EMF Services, which measures electric and magnetic fields