Vol. 559 No. 1
277 Mr. Deasy asked the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources the monitoring of electromagnetic radiation which is carried out in areas where high tension electricity pylons are present; the details of the outcome of this monitoring to show the areas which are high risk; if not, the plans he has to carry out such tests to assure the public living in these areas that it is healthy to do so; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25792/02]
The monitoring of non-ionising radiation from high-voltage electricity transmission powerlines has been undertaken on a regular basis by ESB and ESB International for nearly twenty years. Two groups are assigned to do this work around the ESB regions. Typically 50 surveys are undertaken each year.
Electromagnetic field strengths are amenable to mathematical analysis. It is possible to make an accurate calculation of these strengths as a function of current, voltage, pylon height, and conductor configuration. A major study undertaken by ESBI in September 1993 demonstrated a high level of agreement between the measured and calculated magnetic field levels associated with ESB's 110kV, 220kV, and 400kV transmission lines.
The results of all the foregoing studies, a random sample of which have been independently appraised by my Department's chief technical adviser, show that nowhere are members of the public living in the vicinity of overhead high voltage transmission lines exposed to field strengths that exceed the acceptable levels recommended by the International Commission on Non-Ionising Radiation Protection, nor those levels more recently proposed by the EU Council of Health Ministers in its recommendation of 12 July 1999 concerning the limitation of public exposure to electromagnetic fields.
