"Anybody knows safe distance ?"

Nope.

I believe the information you will get on safety depends on the agenda of the information source and their interest in project completion. Beyond potential safety issues, there are quality of life issues with the noise generated by such high power lines - they hum like crazy - and visual impact because they are just plain ugly. I'd be furious about the impact on my property value and my day to day life being altered. I'm not minimizing safety concerns, but I personally don't know what information is accurate. If a house we are looking at is near large lines (and not even as large as what you are dealing with) we look on - won't even consider the house.

I don't know about safety issues, but it will knock off about 10 - 15% of market value as compared to comps that are not facing the powerlines.
Buyers just hate them.

Most radiation from these types of lines are at a lower level than in-home radiation from televisions, microwaves, and other electronics. That said, they are ugly, and perception (like yours) that they are harmful to your health, whether or not they actually are, is negative, and so you will lose value on your property for being within eye-shot of them.

Thank you all for your replies. Couple days ago I found out that new power line will carry one 500 kv circuit Plus one 230 kv circuit. According to specifications available online towers could be 145' to 195' tall. It is not clear which height will be 200 meters from our house, but I think it must be higher than narrow wooden area before that. If we could more or less be sure that it's completely safe health wise, we would not sell. But 500_230 kv sound sooo much. I am trying to find online similar power line somewhere in USA, but did not find any yet .... Thank you all and any more thoughts/suggestions on the subject would be appreciated.

The only model we presently have for electric field exposure is through heating of tissue.

No other model has been proposed, and mos of the purported 'studies' have been amateurish (see 'wire codes) and laughable (not actually measuring field strengths).

Until some type of dose-response relationship can be established, it is just guessing.

At this point we have a single dose model (localized tissue heating) and nothing else.

It IS an appearance issue.

No one likes to look at industrial electric towers.

No one has established ANY connection with health however.

If you are considering buying, your eventual buyer may have the same concerns.

This post was edited by brickeyee on Sat, Jan 19, 13 at 17:43

"We are trying to understand if it will be safe enough for our children to spend school day in middle school and then the rest of the day in our house. I was told that playing field between middle school and 500 kv power line will be closed for use when power line will be built."

This doesn't sound good. I googled a few things and you may want to have a look at this article while your deciding.

Is living near power lines bad for our health?
Issue: BCMJ, Vol. 50, No. 9, November 2008

"However, a more recent study showed an elevated risk of leukemia among children living in homes with distances much greater than 60 m from high voltage power lines. This study involved close to 30000 matched case-control pairs of children living in the United Kingdom. It was found that children living in homes as far as 600 m from power lines had an elevated risk of leukemia. An increased risk of 69% for leukemia was found for children living within 200 m of power lines while an increased risk of 23% was found for children living within 200 to 600 m of the lines. This study was notable in that it found some elevation of risk at much greater distances than previous studies."

A link that might be useful:

www.bcmj.org/bc-centre-disease-control/living-near-power-lines-bad-our-health

Reference to non-working link?

The link works. Or, try googling the headline.

I don't know if 200m is a safe distance from power lines from a health perspective, but from a resale perspective, it is a killer. If you can move I would do it before the work commences. There is no way I would risk the health of my family if there is even a suggestion of higher incidences of cancer with proximity to power lines. If you find credible evidence that has been published in a reputable journal and has not been contradicted or disproven by subsequent studies, it's time to go.

Since this is a real estate forum, most of us will look at it from a resale value perspective, and it doesn't matter what the truth is, if people believe it's a health/safety problem, then your buyer pool will shrink even more than it already did with the poor view and the buzzing noise.
It doesn't matter if it was published in a reputable journal or peer-reviewed or anything. It just needs to be spread around on Facebook and it's now "truth".

"Studies using magnetic field strength as an exposure measure have found that exposures greater than the range of 0.3 to 0.4 �[micro]T lead to a doubling risk of leukemia"

The earths natural field is 25 to 65 micro Tesla, or 80 to 200 times stronger than the fields they are claiming.

And any affect from a static field and a moving object is exactly the same as a static object and a time varying field.
It is a VERY difficult measurement to see anything below the earths field.

"This exposure range is approximately equal to a distance of 60 m within a high-voltage power line of 500 kV."

This single statement belies their gross ignorance of what they are doing.

Voltage does not produce a magnetic field, current does.

They are an appearance issue.

This post was edited by brickeyee on Tue, Jan 22, 13 at 13:18

In the article they may be do not specify current's strength because usually 500 kv lines are Not refferent by current value but. But 500 kv do produce higher EMF that depends also on the load. That is a fact. Does anybody knows about another 500+230 kv power line in the residential area ?

In the article they may be do not specify current's strength because usually 500 kv lines are Not refferent by current value but. But 500 kv do produce higher EMF that depends also on the load. That is a fact. Does anybody knows about another 500+230 kv power line in the residential area ?

"In the article they may be do not specify current's strength because usually 500 kv lines are Not refferent by current value but."

That means they have no0 idea what they are measuring.

They need to measure both the electric field and the magnetic field strength.

It can actually be done with the same loop antenna if you know what you are doing.

The magnetic field strength has no real relation to the line voltage, so using it to describe a magnetic field is simply ignorant.

One of the reasons for using higher voltages is to reduce magnetic field strength. It contributes to loss in the line.

I would have to agree that for the sake of real estate these towers are like the plague. However, there must be some kind of permits that the utility co. has to get in order to construct these towers? You see them everywhere and houses are built around them, how close I don't know, if people were getting ill from them you would think something would have been done about them years ago! I see them in pastures too where there are cows. How is this legal if people and animals are getting sick?

Thank you "jrldh"!

Can anybody direct me to the document online that would tell me : to live 200 meters from 500 kv power line is SAFE or To study in school that is 125 meters from 500kv power line is SAFE ? We have found document published by company that will build this power line and it looks like power-line-generated-EMF where our house is will be 2.7 mG (this is on top of what is now). And where middle school is 4 mg (on top of existing). Which document says that to spend 15 years under 3+ and 4+ mG 24/7 is Safe for a child (and adult). "jrldh" if your calculations are so easy and obvious, where do they say: it's Safe, do Not worry about EMF ?
Many thanks, I would love to be convinced that it's safe.

"Can anybody direct me to the document online that would tell me : to live 200 meters from 500 kv power line is SAFE or To study in school that is 125 meters from 500kv power line is SAFE ?"

There is no such document.

"I would love to be convinced that it's safe. "

Since it is impossible to prove a negative, you will never have an answer.

So far there is no evidence that the 2-3 Tesla field in MRI machines causes any harm (though it is a mostly static (fixed) field.