Power Poles to Port of Brisbane

SHOCKING: Reporter Jessica Lawrence lights up a fluorescent tube under a high-voltage transmission tower

May the force be with you

JESSICA LAWRENCE
14mar04

THE air around Brisbane is positively electric. These amazing pictures show just how much energy is being emitted by high-voltage power lines.

The Sunday Mail visited several locations in and around Brisbane with an ordinary fluorescent tube.

Standing under a transmission tower with power lines that the Electrical Trades Union says carry 275,000 volts was enough to make the tube flicker and glow brightly.

According to experts, fluorescent material inside the tubes is stimulated by electrical fields emitted by the lines.

Brisbane is criss-crossed by lines of varying voltage, ranging from distribution lines of 11,000 volts to lines from sub-stations like the one at Mansfield in the city's south, featured in our picture. The line is located just 200m from a school.

Professor Gerard Ledwich, a Queensland University of Technology expert in power systems, said fluorescent material that coated the inside of the tube was "excited" by the electrical field.

Gas inside the tube made it easier for the material to ignite. "But it's emitting lower energy than it would if it was being used for its normal operation," Professor Ledwich said.

Community groups say the phenomenon is evidence of a more sinister invisible force.

While the jury is still out on health risks associated with high-voltage power lines, many people are expressing their concern.

They say studies from Bristol University in Britain have found that children who live under power lines have double the chance of developing leukemia.

Wynnum Lytton Action Group Against Energex spokeswoman Amelia McWilliam says a planned 110,000-volt line to the Port of Brisbane will adversely affect residents' health.

"Research shows possible adverse effects from high- voltage power lines are cancer, asthma and bronchial conditions," she said.

"If they can light up lightbulbs, imagine what they are doing to our bodies."

Residents Action Group Against Towers spokeswoman Lin Eckett has sold her home since plans to build 275,000-volt powerlines near the Munruben property, south of Brisbane, were announced in 1999.

She called for high-voltage lines to be put underground.

Professor Ledwich said recent studies showed the risk from power lines was low.

A Powerlink spokeswoman said electric and magnetic fields were present wherever there was electricity – including in the home and in the office.

She said the federal government body responsible for the issue had indicated there were no health risks from power lines. And she said the Bristol University research had been disputed.