Neighbourhood Watch: Dispelling concerns about living in high-risk areas

Our experience indicates that clients planning to lease or purchase a property are often reluctant to live in what they perceive as 'high risk' locations. In many instances we have found properties that meet the client's overall criteria until they notice the location's proximity to a radio tower, a power line or a substation.

However, a number of studies published on the topic of the potential health hazards posed by such locations may suggest that clients have no real basis for their concern.

Safety is always a priority when searching for residential property and there is no doubt that people show a definite aversion to the pursuit of properties near sub stations. Although it is unclear, the perception seems to be that there is an association with certain diseases as the result of living near power lines (high-current distribution lines and high-voltage transmission lines).

However when power frequency fields were actually measured, the association generally vanished. Three of the twelve studies that have used distance from power lines as a surrogate measure of exposure have shown a relationship between proximity and cancer.

Conversely, the largest study of proximity to power lines and childhood cancer found no association with any kind of cancer in people living within 50 metres of power lines or substations. The studies state that if there is a human health hazard from residential exposure to power-frequency fields, it is highly unlikely to depend on anything as simple as the distance of the residence from the nearest power point.

Some of the best evidence against a connection between power-frequency fields and cancer includes the following:

– Recent epidemiological studies have failed to find any significant evidence for an association between power lines and childhood brain cancer/childhood leukaemia.

– Long-term exposure of animals to power-frequency fields does not cause cancer.

– Lab studies of genotoxicity have been overwhelmingly negative.

– The consistent rejection of the idea that there is convincing data to support a casual relationship between exposure to power-frequency fields and cancer by all scientific panels that examined this issue over the past decade.

Although there is a broad consensus in the scientific community that no casual association has been established between residential exposure to power-frequency fields and human health hazards, public controversy persists.

Many of the worries are based on uneven reporting on the issue by mass media, and lay-oriented books, alleging there has been a conspiracy to conceal the health risks of power-frequency fields. However, with all real estate leases or purchases, these decisions are up to the individual buyer and not for evaluation by a sales agent.

Obviously it is not the role of a real estate agent to make judgements or to offer advice with respect to this subject. It may be worthwhile, however, to recommend the review of the studies outlined above to perhaps dispel client misconceptions in this area.

The writer is the UAE-based managing director of Better Homes LLC.