from Sunday Herald, 27 November 2005
THOUSANDS of people could be exposed to cancer risks from a high-voltage power line planned to carry renewable electricity from the north of Scotland.
The power company, Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE), has applied for permission to run a chain of 600 pylons 220 kilometres from Beauly, near Inverness, to Denny, near Stirling.
The pylons are needed to upgrade an existing line to 400,000 volts so that power from wind farms and future wave power stations can be transmitted to the central belt, the company claims.
But a survey by residents has discovered that there are 878 houses near Stirling which lie within 600 metres of the broad route proposed for the power line. That is the distance within which a recent government study found the risks of childhood leukaemia increased.
Some experts say proximity to power lines is also linked to severe depression, suicide, miscarriages, brain cancer and motor neurone disease. Other countries have taken strict precautions against siting high-voltage pylons next to homes.
Around Stirling, however, a student hall of residence, a home for the elderly and a caravan park under the Wallace Monument are all close by. Two thirds of the affected houses are in the former mining village of Fallin, along with a primary school.
The residents’ group behind the study, Stirling Before Pylons, also points out that there may be many more homes close to the route of the power line further north.
“It is no exaggeration to say that thousands of lives will be threatened,” said the group’s Caroline Paterson.
The most disturbing evidence to date on the health hazards of pylons comes from a study by the Childhood Cancer Research Group at Oxford University, published in the British Medical Journal in June. The study of 29,000 children in England and Wales found that those who lived within 200 metres of a high-voltage line had a 69% increased risk of leukaemia. Those living 200 to 600 metres away had a 23% increased risk.
SSE has claimed there will be only 10 residential properties within 100 metres of the line from Beauly to Denny.
But Stirling Before Pylons says this is “misleading”. The group counted 50 houses in the Stirling Council area alone within 100 metres of where pylons could be sited. Pylons could be put up anywhere inside a corridor that ranges from 100 to 400 metres wide, it claimed.
Bruce Crawford, the Nationalist MSP for mid-Scotland and Fife, said he was “deeply concerned” that so many homes were so close to the line and is calling on ministers to consider altering the route to avoid housing. He is hoping for cross-party support for a motion on the issue he will lodge at Holyrood.
But the health minister, Andy Kerr, said: “At this stage research has not proved power lines cause cancer. The Executive is represented on an advisory group set up by the Department of Health to consider the need to develop precautionary measures.”
SSE insisted there would not be any danger from the electromagnetic fields generated by power lines as long as they were within safety limits laid down by the government.
But this was dismissed by Stirling Before Pylons, which warned that landlords – such as the council, university and housing associations – could face compensation claims from people who may later develop health problems as a result of proximity to the power line.
