Measuring electromagnetic fields (EMF) around wind turbines in Canada: is there a human health concern?

Environmental Health

Research

Lindsay C McCallum¹  Glenn M Ferguson²  Christopher A Ollson²  Melissa L Whitfield Aslund²  Loren D Knopper² 

[1] Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences, University of Toronto at Scarborough, Toronto, Ontario, Canada;Intrinsik Environmental Sciences Inc, L5T 0A3, Hurontario Street, 500 - 6605, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada;Intrinsik Environmental Sciences Inc, L5T 0A3, Hurontario Street, 500 - 6605, Mississauga, Ontario, Canada;

关键词: Electromagnetic fields;    EMF;    Wind turbines;    Wind farms;    Human health;    Power lines;    Transmission lines;    Substation;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1476-069X-13-9

 received in 2013-10-07, accepted in 2014-02-07,  发布年份 2014

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe past five years has seen considerable expansion of wind power generation in Ontario, Canada. Most recently worries about exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMF) from wind turbines, and associated electrical transmission, has been raised at public meetings and legal proceedings. These fears have not been based on any actual measurements of EMF exposure surrounding existing projects but appear to follow from worries from internet sources and misunderstanding of the science.MethodsThe study was carried out at the Kingsbridge 1 Wind Farm located near Goderich, Ontario, Canada. Magnetic field measurements were collected in the proximity of 15 Vestas 1.8 MW wind turbines, two substations, various buried and overhead collector and transmission lines, and nearby homes. Data were collected during three operational scenarios to characterize potential EMF exposure: ‘high wind’ (generating power), ‘low wind’ (drawing power from the grid, but not generating power) and ‘shut off’ (neither drawing, nor generating power).ResultsBackground levels of EMF (0.2 to 0.3 mG) were established by measuring magnetic fields around the wind turbines under the ‘shut off’ scenario. Magnetic field levels detected at the base of the turbines under both the ‘high wind’ and ‘low wind’ conditions were low (mean = 0.9 mG; n = 11) and rapidly diminished with distance, becoming indistinguishable from background within 2 m of the base. Magnetic fields measured 1 m above buried collector lines were also within background (≤ 0.3 mG). Beneath overhead 27.5 kV and 500 kV transmission lines, magnetic field levels of up to 16.5 and 46 mG, respectively, were recorded. These levels also diminished rapidly with distance. None of these sources appeared to influence magnetic field levels at nearby homes located as close as just over 500 m from turbines, where measurements immediately outside of the homes were ≤ 0.4 mG.ConclusionsThe results suggest that there is nothing unique to wind farms with respect to EMF exposure; in fact, magnetic field levels in the vicinity of wind turbines were lower than those produced by many common household electrical devices and were well below any existing regulatory guidelines with respect to human health.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© McCallum et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2014. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.