To discard a house because it's less than 1 km from pylons

[BananaMamas]

I have tried to research this and there doesn't seem to be any specific advice other than the very minimum distance required for security. I came across an old research suggesting a potential correlation between child leukemia and living less than 1 km away from electricity pylons.
A new house came on the market just now which is in an area we'd consider but right at the border or where we'd stretch to and just under 1 km from pylons. Am I mad to say I don't want to go and see it because of that?

this 100% - it will always be in the back of your mind

Interesting. There is a huge outcry about the 188km route of 55m tall pylons passing from Norwich to Tilbury proposed by National Grid at the moment. Consultation ends today if you are affected.
However , although there are many many arguments against this, none of the organisations involved are using health concerns against them ( that I have seen) as there is no reputable evidence that there are health issues.
Having said that, there have been reports that people with properties potentially affected by the pylons are already having house sales fall through.

Heartily agree. Absolutely no critical thinking or the capability to separate clearly biased vs unbiased commentary nor the desire to find the scientific sources of information.

Just an 'I heard this whatsit and this page on the interwebs agrees!' Also a total lack of risk assessment of other potentially harmful sources.

I had a friend who refused to eat plastic packaged fruit from a local roadside stall because of 'all the exhaust fumes' yet smoked about 10 cigs a day.

You don't need a reason but I don't like the noise, I'd also not buy one near a petrol station, some factories or a school. Many people do but when you buy a house many odd things influence you that other people are fine with. I love a smiley house, even I know that's strange but if you're paying you can have odd wants and needs.

Well, I'm afraid they are extremely important, they need to be built on a massive scale, and the only way that that is going to happen is if everyone is grown-up enough to accept that some of all these pylons are going to be built near ME.

NIMBYism is destroying the UK and is a major reason why we increasingly are not seen as a serious country. Refuse to build reservoirs, refuse to be electricity and grid infrastructure, refuse to build enough housing, refuse to build proper high speed rail.... the list goes on.

And yet they’re still not planned deliberately to be installed in deprived areas.

It’s quite laughably ridiculous to suggest that that is true.

That's a total scam site. Have a look at the actual Draper paper https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15933351/

Power lines are not producing ionizing radiation https://www.cancer.gov/about-cancer/causes-prevention/risk/radiation/electromagnetic-fields-fact-sheet#:~:text=Electric%20and%20magnetic%20fields%20together,x%2Drays%20and%20gamma%20rays.

I wouldn’t. Why would you risk your health for a house? Madness. There’s plenty research on the health effects of living near pylons.

OP, this linked site is really obviously fradulent. This suggests to me that you could benefit from doing some reading on media literacy. I don't say this to be mean to you - I think a lot of us didn't get this at school - but your kids will be learning it and you will want to be able to help them, too.

People can write anything online. I could tell you that studies show that mozarella cheese increases your chance of completing a civil engineering doctorate. I've even got the data.

Really why? There are electrical connections to all homes in the UK so why would moving to increased supply require more pylons? Pylons are just the structures that hold the electrical feed above ground.

Doesn't make any sense.

OP I've never seen any convincing evidence that Pylons are damaging, and 1km seems a bit lf a big ask, i think modt of the south of England would be within that radius.

Lots of high voltage cables run beneath the ground unseen anyway, so whatever is your concern could be silently transmitting upwards from those. Thd pylon itself is a steel carrier system for the cables

From my understanding the National Grid have been looking at making further beneath ground connections and ss above ground.

One thing to be aware of living beneath or near pylons is noise, they hum and some can hear that hum more than others.

@Southoftheriver32 well the thing is that 1km is not that near, technically

Thank you

Just restating the science for those who missed it.

@BananaMamas you are being cautious. No worries about that.

I personally think you're over thinking it, but you're buying the house so do what you feel is right.You'd probably never be happy in a house within 1km of pylons, so don't look at it leave it for someone less adverse to the idea.

*probably never be happy

Thinking about it we are def within 1k of pylons but we can’t see them easily and never really thought about it

I mean I wouldn’t want them just outside the garden (for noise reasons more than anything) but I wouldn’t worry about them being 1k away

There was a pylon in my NDN field when I grew up (grew up in the country so we all had fields). Probably about 300m away. I now live in a house that’s about 500m away from a pylon.

We are all okay 👍🏼. It’s never even been on my radar of things to worry about.

Yes but if you all regularly wear tinfoil hats that will offer some protection

how about mobile phone masts EMF from them too, or indeed the mobile phone in your pocket

Also to clarify, they wouldn't be visible, it's a very urban type of place with plenty of terraced houses, shops, restaurants etc, the Pylons are 1 km away on the other side of the motorway - you can see them a bit from some streets nearby but not from the house directly

well, do that then.

You cannot get cancer from non-iodising ratiation. EM radiation is far too low a frequency to be able to strip electrons from atoms, no matter how much of it there is.

If you're worried about pylons at 1km, you should be even more worried about every single electrical device within inches or feet of you.

It would count out great swathes of our area. In some parts you couldn't get less than 100m away from a pylon! There is one on the grounds of my child's school.

I wouldn't want one next to my house or garden but 1km away is a bit extreme!

So my understanding is (even if you were worried about the "radiation" from them, which you don't need to be) that the strength of the electromagnetic field decreases by the square of the distance, so by the time you get to a km away the strength of the field will be massively dwarfed by any other fields that are much lower strength but much closer.

So I really don't think it's any particular risk. A kilometre is a long way in terms of the proportion of urban areas it would knock out.

Two of my school friends (different families) lived close to pylons and died of leukaemia in their 20s. I would never live near them, even if the house was free.