‘OUR HOUSE IS WORTH NOTHING... IT’S NOT RIGHT’
A COUPLE both diagnosed with cancer claim their ill-health is down to a high-voltage line they have lived near for three decades.
Paula and Mike Sheridan, from Curraghtown, Drumree, Co. Meath, live 35 metres from a 400kv line.
Mr Sheridan was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 2002 and earlier this year his wife was diagnosed with colo-rectal cancer.
They are now calling for an independent health audit of the lines in their community – where they say neighbours have suffered cancers, miscarriages and diabetes.
Mrs Sheridan told the Sunday Independent: ‘We are one of the very few families in Ireland to have been exposed to a 400kv line over our vegetable garden for the past 30 years. We have never once been monitored. Our exposure to magnetic fields is 24/7. We cannot continue to live there. Our immune system has been compromised… our house is worth nothing, our children’s inheritance is gone – how can that be right?’
EirGrid have repeatedly stated there is no evidence of any link between health impacts as a result of pylons or power lines.
The company added: ‘Extensive international research reviewed by the World Health Organisation has not established a link to ill health and the level of electric and magnetic fields reaching houses in any lines planned by EirGrid.’