Would you live near a power transformer ?

jamesd

Debt_Free_Chick, just scaremongering but if enough people believe it and associate it with random bad events like Pee and alfiesmum then it's a factor that may make a place cheaper to buy. People tend not to remark about people who lived to over 90 and were next door to a transformer or power line and give the line credit for the longer than average life...

Transformer hum is real, a potential irritation sometimes.

A road would be harmful, due to diesel soot particles from passing vehicles that reduce life expectancy. Few people worry about this proved danger because roads are common and most people think that they understand them and the risks associated with them.

shirlgirl2004

Debt_Free_Chick wrote: »

Are there really proven health issues? Or just supposition and co-incidence?

Surely, if there were very real health issues, thousands of people in the country would be at risk and something would be done?

There are plenty of things we are allowed to do or use that have proven health issues. They aren't all banned.

Most evidence on this matter is circumstancial but as a parent I would feel as if I were doing my children an injustice by buying a home with the potential to give them cancer. If I didn't have children it wouldn't bother me healthwise but I would still worry about resale. For these reasons I wouldn't buy a house on a busy road.

Debt_Free_Chick

jw8725 wrote: »

cancer! I'd not even consider a house near crap like that. Houses should not be allowed in the vicinity of those things.

But surely, they are placed near properties in order to deliver the electricity that the properties need?

I suspect very many of us are actually quite close to one. I wonder how far away one needs to be .....?

chinup_3

2 points

a] when i was in the mortgage business only lender who would lend was the fiendishly expensive 'I GROUP' if you lived near one of these.

b] in sweden and other scandinavian countries who take public health WAY more seriously houses are not built within something like 1 mile of pylons. A google or similar check on this would be the way. I wouldn't ever entertain it, ESPECIALLY if children living in house.

skiTTish

We used to live 2 streets away from one and I swear at night I could hear it buzzing!!!
Have you been thee late at night and seen if you can hear it ?

morg_monster

I just want to check, that everyone who said they would not live here because of cancer risks, does not smoke and wears long sleeves/trousers or SPF 30+ and a hat every single time they go out in the sun?

just want to check, because of course those two things make much more of a difference to your lifetime risk of cancer than living near a pylon ever would. (issues with children are a little more complex I accept).

The EMF thingy looks useful; anyone who did Physics at gcse / o-level learns how the field around a wire decreases (argh, is it exponentially or squareroot-edly?). So if you are far enough away that the EM field is not measurable, and you believe it is the EM field that causes cancer (whether that's true or not), no worries!

Selling it on is another matter though. I don't think I'd buy it purely for this reason.

slipthru

I personally wouldn't buy a house like this. Not worth the risk and the hassle trying to sell it on in the future.

Davesnave

As I've said already, if people want to be nice and safe, they should stay a town environment, because these little transformers are everywhere in the countryside, supplying small clusters of houses. They don't carry anything like the huge voltages present in overhead pylon lines and country folk don't give them a second glance. Without them, they'd be a bit stuffed for modern conveniences, most of which give out electromagnetic waves as well, (like some of the computer monitors on which you're reading this!)

While we're on the subject, best take son/daughter's mobile 'phone off them tonight and bin it, just to be on the safe side.;)

OP, you have your answer. This transformer probably poses no threat to your health, but even if you buy or hire an EMF tester and satisfy yourself of this, you will one day want to sell the house. You will be selling to Joe Public. Bearing that in mind, and if you still want the property, look for a sensible % reduction on comparables without this particular problem.

shirlgirl2004

morg_monster wrote: »

I just want to check, that everyone who said they would not live here because of cancer risks, does not smoke and wears long sleeves/trousers or SPF 30+ and a hat every single time they go out in the sun?

Only a fool would do that. Surely we all know that we need some sun so that our bodies can produce vitamin D.

GDB2222

chinup wrote: »

b] in sweden and other scandinavian countries who take public health WAY more seriously houses are not built within something like 1 mile of pylons.

Wikipedia says:
"England ... is one of the most densely populated countries in the world with 383 people resident per square kilometre"

"Sweden. The population density is only 20.6 people per km²"

You don't think that might have something to do with it?