Will Riding Electric Trains cause cancer?

[Anonymous]

The quick and easy answer is no.

Erik

[StillGrande]

I remember in a college physics class the professor talking about how he wanted to design a room with a big coil of wire and then get a lamp with a small coil and just walk around turning the light on and amazing his party guests.

I love when people are afraid of magnetic fields from electricity. They will next want to dig up the earth's magnetic core and get rid of it because, hello, magnetic field.

These stories are often people using little or no understanding of statistics and clusters to prove an agenda.

I remember in the late 80s there was a story in the Dallas Morning News whose headline read "Food Causes Cancer - Pesticides a Lessor Risk".

[vsmith]

QUOTE: Originally posted by Overmod



Don't worry. You can take the tinfoil and bent coathangers off your head now...

Its not so bad in the winter, but boy in the summer that foil heats ups your head like.. well....

I think you have a much greater chance of developing asthma or lung problems from the soot emitted from diesels locomotives or worse, buses, than from an electrical train wire. Go Electric!

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by macguy

Will Riding Electric Trains cause cancer?

Just the same as riding diesel locomotives will give you iron lung.

Or the old steam locos giving you mesothelioma because of the asbestos or pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis because of the coal. Riding electric trains decades ago could probably increase your likelihood of developing cancer, but that's only because everyone, their brother & sister were "smoking cigarettes" and it was OK to do so in coach or any other section on the train.

[Overmod]

Even shorter answer: If you're inside the train, the carbody will almost certainly act as a Faraday cage for powerline frequencies and their logical harmonics.

Don't worry. You can take the tinfoil and bent coathangers off your head now...

[jchnhtfd]

Short answer: no.

Long answer: there have been many studies over the years, financed primarily by the NIMBY and Luddite legal communities, seeking to demonstrate a link between electromagnetic fields in the ultra low frequency band (25 hz to 400 hz) and disease, particularly cancer. This band includes, among other things, 50 (European) to 60 hz (North American) AC as might be found in high tension power lines (the primary target), catenaries, electric blankets, the list goes on... To the best of my knowledge, no such study has demonstrated a valid statistical correlation between exposure to electromagnetic fields in this frequency range and any disease, never mind a valid causal relationship. (which is a very different thing, incidentally).

[mvlandsw]

How about from riding those AC units with much higher currents and field strength?

[Anonymous]

If 60Hz AC gives you cancer it should show up in studies with electric blankets. Because it is both a maximum wattage home appliance and it covers you like, well, a blanket and it's there all night exposing you to a greater electromagnetic field than any other AC appliance.

Many studies have looked for a link between electric blankets and several types of cancer and no link has been proved.

This makes me wonder if steam locomotive crews got cancer from the smoke.

[Anonymous]

Will Riding Electric Trains cause cancer?

Just the same as riding diesel locomotives will give you iron lung.

[jeaton]

Knew guys who spent 40-50 years working under cat. Also have a couple of friends who retired from work as lineman at Com Ed. Don't know of anybody in those jobs who died of cancer.

I'll bet there is a major fight going on between the "cancer from electricity" and the "fried brain cells from electricity" groups as they try to get government funding for research.

Jay

[UPTRAIN]

Grab that wire, that'll do a number on ya, not the microwaves, lol.

[tree68]

According to research done some years ago, dimes cause cancer. The researchers implanted dimes in the abdomens of lab mice. The results were such that they could say the dimes caused cancer.

IMHO, two things are needed to cause cancer: A catalyst (like smoking or chemicals) and a person's predisposition to suffer that sort of cancer. This is being borne out by research. (Sorry, can't cite any sources). You'd have to live in very close proximity to the HV source (which would have to be AC, besides) to have any sort of negative outcome (besides electrocution).

[Junctionfan]

I doubt it. Unless there is some decent and credible medical evidence, I wouldn't think much of it.

[oltmannd]

...or make toast , or use a hair dryer, or an electic dryer, etc.

[Anonymous]

Sure hope you don't stand too close to your cellphone. Those microwaves will kill you!

Yeah, Right!

[Anonymous]

Like you are right under the wire...You are standing waiting for the train near the wire and you have trouble using AM radio on a train that is electric.
Heres a Link-http://www.midtod.com/9603/voltage.phtml