Gonny says that their house is located exactly behind a transformer house. From there, high-voltage lines run above ground to Heerlen and underground to Geleen. She overlooks the power lines from her backyard.
A few years ago, Gonny first heard about the potential danger of radiation to her health.
Leukemia risk
The Health Council has brought already published a report on . in 2018 the harmful effects of power lines on children. This was a follow-up to an earlier report from the year 2000, which found that children living near overhead power lines are twice as likely to develop leukemia. One possible explanation would be exposure to magnetic fields generated by the lines.
A report released this week also looked at harmful effects of power lines for adults. This shows that adults, as well as children, who live near power lines also have leukemia occurs more often.
On the basis of this study, the Health Council advises to: the precautionary policy to extend the distance between high-voltage lines and homes to include transformer stations. This limits exposure to magnetic fields. The policy now only applies to overhead power lines.
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The various reports make Gonny wonder how dangerous it is to live near such a high-voltage pylon. For example, she has back problems and sees that many women in the street have developed breast cancer. But she doesn’t know if that’s because of the radiation. She would therefore like to have a measurement take place. “To know how much radiation is coming out of it.”
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Magnetic Fields
The magnetic fields around high-voltage fields are a possible explanation for the increased risk of leukemia. Eric van Rongen, Secretary of the Electromagnetic Fields Committee of the Health Council, explains how this works. He first explains what a magnetic field is: “If there is voltage on a pipe, it creates an electric field. If current flows through it, it generates a magnetic field. Then a kind of force field is created.”
A magnetic field is capable of changing things in other structures, such as the human body, he continues. “You have to think of changes in tissues, for example. Those changes can lead to health effects.” Another type of electromagnetic field, such as radiation from mobile phones or used in microwave ovens, converts the radiation into heat. “That heat can lead to harmful effects in the body.”
But with magnetic fields such as those generated by the electricity grid, it is difficult to find which mechanism plays a role. “We only know that the fields are there and can penetrate the body. At high field strengths we know that they can stimulate nerves, which can lead to involuntary muscle movements. In the heart that is life-threatening. But then we are talking about a field strength a thousand times over.” higher than under power lines.”
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Electrosensitive
Wally (65), unlike Gonny, does not think about living near power lines. Never mind that she lives near a transformer house. “I would leave right away,” she says. Wally is electrically sensitive. Just like about 3500 other people in the Netherlands, a count of, among other things, shows: foundation EHS (electrohypersensitivity) and the CPLD Association – a patient association for people who suffer from radiation, among other things.
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Around the year 2000, Wally lived in Odijk, 150 meters from a high-voltage cable, and that caused many health problems. “I get an indefinable feeling, I start to tremble, my ears ring, my facial muscles twitch and I can’t think clearly anymore,” she says. “Also, if I’m there for too long, I get a blood pressure of 240 and arrhythmias.” It wasn’t until 2013 that she understood how this happened. At the time, she exercised almost daily next to a transmission tower and became ill. “My whole nervous system went haywire.”
Gonny is not bothered by this, but does want a hotline to be established where people with questions about the danger of high-voltage lines can go. “Because it stays in my head.”
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