Property 200m from a 275v substation - should we be concerned

[SweetFelicityArkwright]

We are considering a property which has lots going for it, potential to add value, on a lovely street, but it is approx 200m from a large electricity substation. The substation is not visible from the property and is on a different street but as the crow flies it is not far away.

My concerns are about any potential health issues relating to being near a substation but don't know enough about it to know if I am being overly cautious. Almost everything I have read online seems to say that it is perfectly safe but there are some that say it isn't.

Does anyone have any experience or advice to offer ?

I wasn't aware of any health issues about being near substations.. ..not unless you get really near..

this came up recently. There are no proven health issues unless you climb the fence and touch something live.

on the other thread the person had actually had EMF levels measured in the house. Unsurprisingly (to anyone who knows a little science) they were much stronger from the wi-fi, the microwave, the TV and the electric cables in the house than from the train line at the end of the garden, which was the concern.

so if you are happy to live with all that, you are by definition happy to live near a substation.

if you can neither hear nor see the substation then there are no issues; they are not pretty and they do generate a low hum.

SweetFelicity - you are right to be concerned. However it depends on the type of substation & the direction of your house in context of the substation. I will come back & post a very useful link which explains how this can be worked out (high level). Also I had an EMF survey done for a property we were considering as it was close to a railway line. Apparently my concern was valid (not many people consider this point) but since it was a DC line it was a non issue.

artistic (appropriate name...) I think it is your thread of which I am thinking.

Thanks all. I have had a look at your thread Artistic, very informative.

I tried what one of the posters on there had done and looked at planning applications online for any emf surveys/info in the vicinity but couldn't find anything so rang the council directly and they said they only ask for an emf survey if environmental health raise a concern.
There are planning applications online for properties that are to be built on the site of the actual substation with apparently no emf surveys done, the planners seemed only interested in the noise level of the 'humming'. The developers must think they will sell even though they are almost on top of the very ugly, if not harmful substation.
There is also a newish looking block of flats directly adjacent to the substation which must have either had no emf concerns raised about it or had an acceptable emf survey, but can't find any details online.

I think just to settle my mind on the issue, if we proceed with the property we would get the emf levels measured before committing ourselves.

SweetFelicity - sorry for my slow response. Property purchase woes at my end too.

Here is the link to the entire library of findings:
www.powerwatch.org.uk/library/index.asp

This is the specific file that will be useful to you which explains which substations are not good and in which direction you should not buy a house:
www.powerwatch.org.uk/library/downloads/emf-property-03-2014-02.pdf

Also, most government surveys will not raise issues, because govt approved EMF levels are much much higher than what scientists believe is harmful for the human body. Its more of a 'believe it if you wish' concept. When cigarette smoking was first thought to be harmful by scientists, there was similar disbelief/disapproval from corporates, government and public in general - as it was too 'inconvenient'. EMF exposure is quite similar.

To explain: The levels of exposure may be small and seemingly harmless, but over a period of time modern technology relentlessly exposes us to EMF which results in many chronic diseases which are 'unexplainable' even today. Hence, for those who wish to believe - its better to avoid the bigger sources of EMF exposure to minimize your overall exposure in your lifetime - especially if you have children under the age of 20, as their bodies and cells are still growing and they already have so many household EMF to survive.

We had found an EMF surveyor who did a great job for us. If you want his contact am happy to inbox you.

Alternatively you can also use a 'remote survey' where simply based on data, a remote engineer could tell you your levels of exposure in a given property without actually measuring the 'real' levels. This could be OK for your situation and is also much cheaper than a real survey.

specialsubject - yes, I realized. Glad to be of help (even though I may be sharing bad news!)

Thanks for those links Artistic. Very helpful indeed. I would be very grateful if you could pm me with the name of the surveyor that you used. Whether we get this property or not the substation is in the area that we are most interested in so this issue will likely apply to other properties we look at. Thanks so much for your help.

Those links are balls from a very biased source - if you think about how much mobile phone use there is, any issue would be very obvious.
The smoking 'comparison' is balls as well, everyone agreed it caused issues, the discussion was about freedom to smoke, not whether it was harmful.

interesting stuff, although these people are of course also trying to flog measuring kit.

WHO say 'no problem at these levels'

www.who.int/peh-emf/about/WhatisEMF/en/index1.html

everybody who ever tried a cigarette and coughed like crazy, and knew it took time to get used to, knew it was harmful from day one. Possibly not how harmful, but there were always obvious signs.

as noted, if you are bothered by this you need to live without wi-fi, mobile phone, cordless phone, TV, unshielded electrical cables etc etc etc.

because govt approved EMF levels are much much higher than what scientists believe is harmful for the human body.
Even if that were the case (and that is a conclusion that goes against the vast majority of experimental data) that does not imply that the EMF you will get from an electricity substation a couple of hundred meters away will be even measurable let alone in excess of what these unnamed "scientists" say is harmful.

but over a period of time modern technology relentlessly exposes us to EMF which results in many chronic diseases which are 'unexplainable' even today.
This might be a silly question but if these chronic diseases are unexplainable then how do you know they're caused by EMF?