{"id":9507,"date":"2017-02-23T16:25:21","date_gmt":"2017-02-23T23:25:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/?p=9507"},"modified":"2017-02-23T16:25:51","modified_gmt":"2017-02-23T23:25:51","slug":"9507","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/?p=9507","title":{"rendered":"Researcher says substation below school could bring higher risks of cancer, other health risks"},"content":{"rendered":"
by\u00a0<\/span><\/a>SIMON DRUKER<\/a><\/div>\n
Posted Feb 22, 2017 8:39 am PST<\/div>\n
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Children are particularly sensitive to magnetic fields: EMF researcher<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Health Canada guidelines for magnetic fields haven’t been updated for decades: EMF researcher<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) \u2013 There are fears a plan to build two substations in downtown Vancouver could expose students and staff at a school in the West End to dangerous levels of magnetic fields.<\/p>\n

BC Hydro is proposing a\u00a0new substation be built<\/a>\u00a0below a completely new Lord Roberts School Annex in an effort to save space and increase capacity.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe closer you are to a substation, the higher the magnetic field. So building it (substation) near a school just does not make any sense,\u201d says\u00a0Dr. Magda Havas<\/a>, an Environmental and Resource Studies professor at Ontario\u2019s Trent University.<\/p>\n

Andrew Leonard is the project manager for\u00a0BC Hydro<\/a>\u00a0and says the proposed new school would not expose students and staff to any higher levels of magnetic fields than in the current building.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no health risk. Our substations are not a significant source of magnetic fields,\u201d says Leonard, adding there are other schools near or under power lines where students and staff are exposed to around 100 milligals, a unit of acceleration used extensively in the science of gravimetry and commonly used to measure levels of magnetic fields.<\/p>\n

Leonard says BC Hydro subscribes to\u00a0Health Canada\u2019s 2,000\u00a0milligal limit<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd two thousand milligals is a conservative number. What we\u2019re proposing here is really no different that Cathedral Square Park. Underneath that park we have an underground substation. We have the benefit of being able to go to an actual underground substation, stand on to of it and measure the magnetic field. And if you did that today you would get no more than a hundred milligals reading and a hundred is a far less than the two-thousand limit,\u201d says Leonard.<\/p>\n

But Havas says research contradicts those claims.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ll (BC Hydro) tell you the guidelines that Health Canada sets for magnetic fields will not be exceeded and that\u2019s a correct statement. But the guidelines that Health Canada has set are totally arbitrary, they have nothing to do with science and they\u2019re certainly not protective,\u201d says Havas, one of the country\u2019s leading researchers on the topic.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose guidelines have been in existence for a long time and they have no relationship whatsoever with the scientific research that has been done on the health effects.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cChildren are particularly sensitive to magnetic fields. Having 100 miligals in a school environment where kids are spending six or more hours daily is not a good idea. So 100 milligals in a school environment is way too high. Studies that have been published on the effects related to cancer show that between two to four milligals has been associated with at least a doubling of childhood leukemia.\u201d<\/p>\n

The final open house is being held at 5 pm today at Elise Roy Elementary School.<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.news1130.com\/2017\/02\/22\/researcher-says-substation-school-bring-higher-risks-cancer-health-risks\/<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

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by\u00a0SIMON DRUKER Posted Feb 22, 2017 8:39 am PST Children are particularly sensitive to magnetic fields: EMF researcher Health Canada guidelines for magnetic fields haven’t been updated for decades: EMF researcher VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) \u2013 There are fears a plan to build two substations in downtown Vancouver could expose students and staff at a school […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58,17,103,119,43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bchydro","category-bc","category-canada","category-magda-havas","category-vancouver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9507"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9507\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9509,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9507\/revisions\/9509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}