Consumerist
Of course, you've heard of hybrid automobiles but most people haven't heard of their possible health risk compared to traditional vehicles. According to the New York Times, strong electromagnetic fields (EMFs) emanating from high voltage power cables located near the driver might be hazardous to your health, yet the government doesn't even test for EMF's in vehicles. Details, inside...
"Hybrids" are vehicles that use an electric power motor which assists a more traditional gasoline-fueled combustion engine. Unlike traditional vehicles, hybrids need to move a large amount of electricity near the driver which cause electromagnetic fields or EMFs. Many drivers are in their cars for hours at a time, making this exposure is prolonged, thus increasing the health risk. This has many drivers concerned. The article says,
Their concern is not without merit; agencies including the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer Institute acknowledge the potential hazards of long-term exposure to a strong electromagnetic field, or E.M.F., and have done studies on the association of cancer risks with living near high-voltage utility lines.
EMFs are a byproduct of electricity, therefore, virtually every device that uses electricity produces some level of EMF. Generally, the more electricity that is involved, the stronger the EMF will be. However, there is no general agreement or federal standard that says what level of EMF's are hazardous. Currently the government does not do safety tests on the strength of EMF's in hybrid vehicles.
Much of this new concern over EMFs has stemmed from the use of inexpensive field-strength detectors such as the "TriField" meter which sells for $145. The article says,
The TriField meter is made by AlphaLab in Salt Lake City. The company’s president, Bill Lee, defends its use for automotive testing even though the meter is set up to test alternating current fields, whereas the power moving to and from a hybrid vehicle’s battery is direct current. “Generally, an A.C. meter is accurate in detecting large electromagnetic fields or microwaves,” he said.
Automakers argue that such instruments cannot make consistent and meaningful readings, however, there is anecdotal evidence of hybrid vehicle EMFs causing health problems. Neysa Linzer, 58, says that since she bought her Honda Civic Hybrid her blood pressure has increased and that she has fallen asleep at the wheel 3 times. She believes her hybrid is causing her health problems, "I never had a sleepiness problem before," she said. She requested that Honda provide her with shielding material to protect her from the fields but Honda declined.
Driver, Brian Collins decided to test his Honda Insight with a Trifield meter. He received readings of 135 milligauss at the hip and 100 milligauss at the upper torso. Considering his VW Van only measures between 1-2 milligauss, he decided to sell his hybrid at a $7000 loss. The article says,
Lawrence Gust of Ventura, Calif., a consultant with a specialty in E.M.F.’s and electrical sensitivity, was one of the electrical engineers who tested Mr. Collins’s Insight in 2001. He agreed that the readings were high but did not want to speculate on whether they were harmful. “There are big blocks of high-amp power being moved around in a hybrid, the equivalent of horsepower,” he said. “I get a lot of clients who ask if they should buy hybrid electric cars, and I say the jury is still out.”
New technology often comes with new risks. Naturally, reduced gasoline consumption is a good thing but we should not ignore possible risks as these vehicles gain popularity. We encourage the government and automakers to be more forthcoming with thorough EMF research so that we don't end up paying a higher price down the road.
Fear, but Few Facts, on Hybrid Risk [NY Times] (Thanks to Justin!)
(Photo: Getty)
Comments
Now is the time to really break out those tin-foil hats!
I thought these things would be shielded in some way. On the bright side, maybe hybrid = contraceptive?
yea cause I'm sure breathing in all that exhaust is good for us.
Listen drinking tap water increases your risk of cancer too.
So does living, did you know living increases your risk of cancer. Yep the longer you live the more likely you'll get cancer. I think the government needs to step in and stop living.
*sarcasm off
@Jaysyn: or in the case of Hybrid's...a tinfoil codpiece! (135 mg @ the hip)
"...so that we don't end up paying a higher price down the road."
I think it's already too late. As soon as this hits the public, there's going to be at LEAST one sue-happy hippy who will go straight for the automakers' throat.
@Skankingmike: impossible. I've been to LA, and I didn't see a warning sticker on the faucet. However, I don't know if babies are affixed with stickers at birth.
*sarcasm's always on
More FUD about hybrids. I've owned a Prius for almost 5 years now (5 years next week, in fact), and I don't have any outstanding health issues. Outside of being fat and lazy, I have high cholesterol, but no problems with blood pressure, and I have never fallen asleep at the wheel.
@zentex: I agree. Screw my brain, I still wanna screw.
And lets not also forget about the dangers to the people outisde the car. Like children being hit by these silent vehicles. [news.google.com]
Or the fact that Seeing Eye dogs now have to be trained w/hybrid cars so they don't lead their handlers into traffic.
So I guess this means Jason and Grant won't be switching to hybrids for future TAPS vehicles.
You know, I remember reading years ago that Russia wouldn't let anyone live within a quarter-mile of those giant high-tension electric wires because of EMFs. Now in a lot of suburbs I see half-million-dollar homes being built almost directly underneath these wires and I wonder if these people know about that at all. It would suck living under a time bomb.
I would not think a DC electrical field would be much of a concern. If it was AC then I would be concerned for ELF radiation.
So a solution to the global warming myth is killing those who believe. Now hybrid drivers have to be willing to die for a faux cause.
I'll drive my gas guzzling truck till they figure this one out
This post is unbelievable.
Wow. Just wow. That whole "power lines cause cancer" think is an old piece of junk science that rebutted many years ago. See [www.quackwatch.org] for more info on this.
I'm kinda surprised to see that it is STILL be repeated.
And as for that lady who apparently fell asleep 3 times in her Prius, I need to remind folks that anecdotes != data.
Typically, the Prius moves power from the battery in the rear to the inverter at ~273 V DC (forgive me if the number is wrong). Although it is nominally DC, I can accept that some EMF is produced due to power moving back and forth during normal operation.
By way of comparison, People in Western Europe spend most of their lives in close proximity to 240 V AC. Lower magnitude, but potentially more EMF.
As Europeans are not going extinct, there needs to be way more study of this before it is time to panic.
I'm sticking with my '68 El Dorado convertible at 6 gallons to the mile and heading over to Taco Bell for some grade E burrito's right now. Who's with me?? C'mon guys! Did we give up when the germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Let's do it!!!
Seriously now.
Do people seriously believe that a few tenths of a Gauss are really that harmful?
I could see if you had a pacemaker and it were interfering with it, or if it were erasing ATM cards, that would be strong enough to be inconvenient for you. But otherwise, magnets is magnets.
He mentioned a 135 milligaus reading and compares that to a 1-2 millagaus reading from his VW, but is that 135 bad? We assume that is based on that comparison. I really don't have a clue.
That being said...what would a laptop have as far as milligaus reading?
I remember going over this questionnaire about EMF's...if i slept near a clock radio, how long i was in front of the computer, etc.
No sarcasm here...if anyone can throw some facts that would be appreciated!
Wow CONSUMERIST... I'm stunned. Is this another Junk Science scare, akin to the BPa Junk Science scare from the recent past? I can't even begin to describe how flawed this is...
No one, EVER, ever, ever, has proven that biological tissue - you know, the stuff we're made of? - is affected by EMF.
Plenty of studies have been done.
People that claim they can "feel" EMF and RF? Put them in a room designed to test their claims, and guess what happens?
This is amazingly bullshit, and I'm appalled at the consumerist for spreading the myth.
I love everyone talking about powerlines: yeah, because unshielded, high-power lines aren't running EVERYWHERE underneath you, in your workplaces and homes and cities.
Whatever. No scientific proof of biological problems linked to EMF. It's all overreacting bull.
Junk.
@laserjobs: I think you only have to worry about ELF radiation close to the North Pole.
This is absurd. 100 milligauss is .1 gauss. The Earth's magnetic field at any given point on the Earth varies between .3 and .6 gauss. You're really going to tell me that a magnetic field several times weaker than the Earth's (the one that every human ever has lived and evolved in) is going to give me cancer? Really? Shame on you Consumerist. Do some research.
@Dead Wrestlers Society:
That was the first thing I thought, too.
+ Watch video
I would really be curious about the tests were done as well. If it's just a hand held device whats to stop other surrounding EMFs, power line, cellphones, etc. from messing with the results.
And now for a word from someone lacking a tinfoil hat. Professor Bob Parks:
1. HYBRIPHOBIA: REMEMBER WHEN POWER LINES CAUSED CANCER?
EMF stopped causing cancer in 1997, but no one bothered to tell Jim Motavalli, who wrote an Automobile column in the Sunday New York Times about the risks of EMF in hybrids. According to Motavalli the National Cancer Institute studied the cancer risks associated with electromagnetic fields. And so it did - but it couldn't find any. You might think Motavalli would at least check the Archives of the New York Times. On July 3, 1997, the day the massive four-year NCI study of power lines and cancer appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine, Gina Kolata reported in the Times that the study was unambiguous and found no health effects associated with electromagnetic fields. An editorial in the same issue of the Journal put it in perspective: "Hundreds of millions of dollars have gone into studies that never had much promise of finding a way to prevent the tragedy of cancer in children. It is time to stop wasting our research resources." It all began in 1979 when Nancy Wertheimer, an unemployed epidemiologist, and her friend Ed Leeper, drove around Denver looking for common environmental factors in the homes of childhood victims of leukemia. It practically jumped out at them - every home had electricity. Their study was so flawed it would have been laughed off but for Paul Brodeur, a scientifically-ignorant writer for The New Yorker. He wrote a series of terrifying articles about power lines and cancer that were collected in a 1989 book, Currents of Death.
[bobpark.org]
Lifeforms have been exposed to EM Fields since they crawled out of the primordial ooze (or when the spaghetti head monster extended his noodly appendage). The Earth is one big honking magnet. I'm simply finding it highly dubious that exposure to an EM field really has that much effect on a lifeform that's spent its entire existence on a planet with a magnetic field. There's even been evidence to suggest that earth's magnetic field has fluctuated in intensity and polarity in the past.
As the NYT headline says, "Fear But Few Facts." This is beyond junk science and into crap "science." This is as bad as the City of Sebastopol turning down a donation of free municipal Wi-Fi, because it might harm "electrosensitive" citizens.
BS-sense tingling! When a company trying to sell you something is sounding the alarm, you should be careful. While "strong EMFs" are harmful, we're talking many, many orders of magnitude above that a power cable in a Hybrid will produce. For example, there's no evidence of health risks from occupational (i.e. long term, all-day) exposure to the EMFs generated by instruments like nuclear imaging equipment, and they're in far, far, far wider use, are far more closely monitored, and are a zillion times stronger than, the fields we're talking about here.
Jay Slatkin, could you add the facts related in @Necoras's comments to the post? We shouldn't accept ignorance on either side of the issue in regards to measurable data.
And let's not suggest that we should just listen to the government and automakers on the risks (or benefits) of exposure to EMFs. The government can't prevent cancer by grace of judgement, even if scientifically backed. Third-party, double-blind studies with strict metrics and no (possibly) biased conclusions please. I'll judge for myself.
(PS. Now I'm ashamed to be American, because judgment is the proper American spelling. It just looks silly and I won't have it. ;) )
I would suggest looking at: [www.emf-portal.de]
I think it is funny that so many people are saying EMF's have no biological effect when a significant amount of scientific evidence is suggesting that at the minimum more research needs to be done because of results suggesting some cellular response. Anyway from a quick search at Pubmed I found the following conclusions:
"CONCLUSION: Continuous low-intensity electromagnetic field comparable to the one that generates around metal devices because of the generation of corrosion currents inhibits osteoblasts differentiation pattern and might contribute at least in part to a decrease in periprosthetic bone formation occurring in vivo."
"In conclusion, non-invasive EMF induction of hsp70 preserved myocardial function and has the potential to improve tolerance to ischemic injury."
"CONCLUSION: EMFs produced by incubators influence newborns' HRV, showing an influence on their autonomous nervous system. More research is needed to assess possible long-term consequences, since premature newborns may be exposed to these high EMFs for months."
I can't believe people buy that EMF is that harmful. That's probably the same set of people that believe in homeopathic medicine.
I'm going to get a homeopathic medical degree by sitting near a medical school. I'll pick up the knowledge vibrations that way.
Consumerist, I'm so sad. I have sent a couple of tips in that were far more entertaining that this article that didn't hit front-page.
Like Jeebus himself, this hybrid driver is willing to die for the Escalade drivers' sins. And hey, this way I might miss $10/gallon gas.
Peace out!
Also: EMF? Unbelievable!
Didn't Bob Parks pretty much debunk the EMF danger in "Voodoo Science"? The neo-Luddites didn't get anywhere with their EMF fear mongering about mobile phones, so are going after the newest electrical gadget.
@zentex: LA GOOD GOD MAN by the very definition of death you should be it!
why with all that smog, water pollution, lead paint and gang violence not to mention drug use and hippie propaganda!!!!!! why you must be a walking corpse of cancer.
:P
This is ridiculous, for comparison, Earth's magnetic field is about 500 milligauss. In fact, the distortion in Earth's field that you experience just being next to a large piece of metal (like a car) is likely to be larger than 135 milligauss.
Plenty of people have already pointed out that this is pure crackpottery. However, as further evidence of this, I would like to point out that NOBODY who actually works in physics, electrical engineering, etc. would ever refer to an electromagnetic field as an "EMF." "EMF" stands for "electromotive force."
@blackmage439: thanks for helping me figure out how to pay for the rest of college.
I'm sure that certain automakers will try to stir up some hysteria over this. They would love nothing more than to scare us back to buying their prehistoric gas-guzzlers.
Car Salesman: "Oh you want the hybrid rather than the SUV? Well yeah sure you'll get a few extra miles per gallon, but in the end, is the CANCER worth it?"
*shakes head*
This article is plainly stupid. I agree with the majority of the posters here. I hardly think that the small electromagnetic field emitted in a Prius is going to do anything to a biological life form. That guy that sold his hybrid at a $7000 loss just because his VW van had a lower gauss rating is especially idiotic. This goes right along with walking under a ladder and black cats. Or have those been proven to cause cancer too?
So then how many of these so I need then for my Prius?
So, according to them, even if we play the "DC is the same as AC" game, I'm looking at exposure that's less than what I'm exposed to sitting in front of my computer...
And of course to add to the "what's good for the environment is bad for you" scare-mongering, CFL bulbs create much more EMF than incandescent bulbs...Consumerist might want to create a post on that...
Um, how do you submit a comment to The Consumerist urging them to stop posting blatantly snopes-worthy articles as "news"?
This is the third one:
(1) No such thing as Grade D taco bell meat guys- I thought everyone but 15-year-old kids who SWEAR they've seen Taco Bell employees carrying out boxes labeled "Grade D" knew this already.
(2) You can't Taser yourself unconscious, no matter what stupid forum you copy/pasted the "story" from (and I use the word liberally).
AND
(3) As others have stated, there is no evidence (scientific or otherwise) that says that EMF are harmful, as has been stated by numerous others in this post.
Either we've regressed to April-Fools Consumerist, the editors are friggin asleep at the wheel, or they've hired a new 15-year old who was driven to work at Taco Bell this morning by his mom in her hybrid while tasering himself in the leg.
Stop. Posting. Bullshit. Guys.
Professor Irwin Corey explains it all
[video.yahoo.com]
@tevetorbes: You're wrong dude! I have personally tased myself unconcious while eating Taco Bell in an EMF field which left me sterile... and they allow me to eat two jello's but only on Wednesday!