Subject: RE Railway power lines (Soares).
Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2000 103600 -0500
From: Roy Beavers
To: guru
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.........Response from EMF-L......
What a good response this is!!!..........We should ALL value the quality scientists who
sit
"on guard" to enhance the accuracy of our EMF-L list...... Joe Bowman is one of those
quality people.......guru.......
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: RE: Railway power lines (Soares).
Date: Tue, 10 Oct 2000 11:04:02 -0400
From: "Bowman, Joseph D."
To: "'roy@emfguru.com'"
CC: "Wenzl, Thurman"
Dear Alexandre,The magnetic fields from railroads come from AC electricity (alternating
current), just like power lines. However, the frequency of the electricity used with
railway locomotives is usually lower than the 50 or 60 Hz in ordinary electric lines: 25
Hz on one American railroad, 16 2/3 Hz in Switzerland and Norway, and 15 2/3 Hz in
Sweden. With this small difference in frequency, the EMF from railroads may have the same
health effects as power lines, but we can't be sure. A few studies have looked at cancers
among railroad engineers, and some have found two-fold increases in some rare cancers --
but with different kinds of cancer (reference 1). Those differences in the study findings
makes it hard to say from the scientific evidence if you and your family are at risk. In
the worst case, the evidence suggests that the risk would not be very great.There has been
some measurements of magnetic fields in a locomotive (reference 2) and along rail lines
(reference 3). Right along the line, the magnetic fields are high in most locations. 93
measurements ranged from 0.15 microtesla to 18.5 microtesla with a median along urban
tracks of 2.26 microtesla. In comparison, 98% of homes in a recent study in Great Britain
had fields below 0.2 microtesla. However, the fields from the railroad will fall off in
the 10 meters to your house, but it is hard for me to predict how much. It is possible
that the fields from the railroad might be about the same as the EMF from power lines and
other sources, but my guess is that the railroad will produce somewhat higher fields than
normal. To measure whether the magnetic fields are high or normal in your home, very
specialized instruments are needed (reference 3). You would have to ask the railroad or
the government to take such measurements.I am sorry that science cannot give you clearer
answers at this time. But I will be happy to help you think more about the possible
health risks from railroad line EMF
Joseph Bowman
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
Cincinnati, Ohio, USA
Phone: +1-513-533-8143
FAX: -8510
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
References for scientists:1. Alfredsson et al. Cancer Causes and Control,
1996;7:377-381.2. Floderus et al, Cancer Causes and Control, 1994;5:189-194.3.
Wenzl, American Industrial Hygiene Association Journal, 1997;58:667-671.
-----Original Message-----
From: Roy Beavers [mailto:guru@emfguru.com]
Sent: Sunday, October 08, 2000 2:25 PM
To: guru
Subject: Railway power lines (Soares).
...........From EMF-L........
We do not have good information about the possible health effects of
(direct-current?)
railway power lines...... Anybody "out there" have anything to
add???.......guru.......
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: railway power lines
Date: Sun, 8 Oct 2000 05:05:10 +0100
From: "Alexandre Soares"
To:
Hi my name is Alexandre, and if you don`t mind I have a question for you. I live
near electric railway lines (10 meters from the back of my house ). Is this
kind electricity the same of the high voltage lines?I have now a child of 8
months and as you imagine I would move to a safer area if there is any
risk.Thanks, I would be very gratefull if you could help me.AlexandrePortugalYou
have a very interesting and serious page on the web, my only problem is my
limited understanding of english,so maybe the message was there and I didn`t
understand it.
--------------0EDE79C513229318390B8D04
Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
.........Response from EMF-L......
What a good response this is!!!..........We should ALL value the quality
scientists who sit
"on guard" to enhance the accuracy of our EMF-L list......
Joe Bowman is one of those
quality people.......guru.......
-------- Original Message --------
| Subject: |
RE: Railway power lines (Soares). |
| Date: |
Tue, 10 Oct 2000 11:04:02 -0400 |
| From: |
"Bowman, Joseph D." <jdb0@cdc.gov> |
| To: |
"'roy@emfguru.com'" <roy@emfguru.com> |
| CC: |
"Wenzl, Thurman" <tyw1@cdc.gov> |
Dear
Alexandre,The
magnetic fields from railroads come from AC electricity (alternating current),
just like power lines. However, the frequency of the electricity
used with railway locomotives is usually lower than the 50 or 60 Hz in
ordinary electric lines: 25 Hz on one American railroad, 16 2/3 Hz
in Switzerland and Norway, and 15 2/3 Hz in Sweden. With
this small difference in frequency, the EMF from railroads may have the
same health effects as power lines, but we can't be sure. A few studies
have looked at cancers among railroad engineers, and some have found two-fold
increases in some rare cancers -- but with different kinds of cancer (reference
1). Those differences in the study findings makes it hard to say
from the scientific evidence if you and your family are at risk.
In the worst case, the evidence suggests that the risk would not be very
great.There
has been some measurements of magnetic fields in a locomotive (reference
2) and along rail lines (reference 3). Right along the line, the
magnetic fields are high in most locations. 93 measurements ranged from
0.15 microtesla to 18.5 microtesla with a median along urban tracks of
2.26 microtesla. In comparison, 98% of homes in a recent study in
Great Britain had fields below 0.2 microtesla. However,
the fields from the railroad will fall off in the 10 meters to your house,
but it is hard for me to predict how much. It
is possible that the fields from the railroad might be about the same as
the EMF from power lines and other sources, but my guess is that the railroad
will produce somewhat higher fields than normal. To measure whether
the magnetic fields are high or normal in your home, very specialized instruments
are needed (reference 3). You would have to ask the railroad or the
government to take such measurements.I
am sorry that science cannot give you clearer answers at this time.
But I will be happy to help you think more about the possible health risks
from railroad line EMF
Joseph Bowman
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
National Institute
for Occupational Safety and Health
Cincinnati,
Ohio,
USA
Phone: +1-513-533-8143
FAX:
-8510
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
References
for scientists:1.
Alfredsson et al. Cancer Causes and Control, 1996;7:377-381.2.
Floderus et al, Cancer Causes and Control, 1994;5:189-194.3.
Wenzl, American Industrial Hygiene Association Journal, 1997;58:667-671.
-----Original
Message-----
From: Roy Beavers [mailto:guru@emfguru.com]
Sent: Sunday, October 08,
2000 2:25 PM
To: guru
Subject: Railway power lines
(Soares).
...........From EMF-L........
We do not have good information about the possible health effects of
(direct-current?)
railway power lines...... Anybody "out there" have anything to add???.......guru.......
-------- Original Message --------
| Subject: |
railway power lines |
| Date: |
Sun, 8 Oct 2000 05:05:10 +0100 |
| From: |
"Alexandre Soares" <nop42126@mail.telepac.pt> |
| To: |
<roy@emfguru.com> |
Hi my name is Alexandre,
and if you don`t mind I have a question for you. I live near electric
railway lines (10 meters from the back of my house ). Is this kind electricity
the same of the high voltage lines?I have now a child of 8 months and as
you imagine I would move to a safer area if there is any risk.Thanks, I
would be very gratefull if you could help me.AlexandrePortugalYou have
a very interesting and serious page on the web, my only problem is my limited
understanding of english,so maybe the message was there and I didn`t understand
it.
--------------0EDE79C513229318390B8D04--
Archive provided courtesy of WaveGuide, http://www.wave-guide.org
Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.emfguru.com