From the March 11 Shakopee Valley News

Household appliances and electronics — televisions, game consoles, hair dryers and electric toothbrushes — as well as hybrid cars and the electric wiring in your home or office, all create electromagnetic fields (EMF) nearby. In fact, the magnetic fields emitted from these everyday sources are comparable to or higher than the magnetic fields beyond the right-of-way edges (75 feet) of the power lines being proposed by CapX2020.

For power line EMF to impair the inner workings of cells, the fields must somehow deposit enough energy to modify proteins, DNA molecules or cell structures. Despite considerable effort, scientists have not been able to identify mechanisms whereby power line EMF damage living organisms. Hundreds of studies conducted since the 1970s have found no reliable evidence that exposure to EMF causes adverse health effects of any kind, including cancer.

The American Cancer Society (ACS) Web site cites studies that show there is no risk of cancer from power lines, including ACS-sponsored studies conducted in 1996 and 2000.

Dr. Mark Israel, cancer researcher and director of the Cancer Center at Dartmouth Medical Center, testified last year in a Pennsylvania transmission line proceeding that there are no health risks associated with power line EMF. He concluded: “As a group, the DNA and chromosome studies over the past 20 years do not show that EMF have a role in cancer by causing permanent damage to DNA or chromosomes.”

There is no national standard that limits people’s exposure to power line EMF, although Florida and New York have set guidelines, which range from 150 to 250 milliGuass (mG). The International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation guideline is 833 mG, while the IEEE guideline is 9,040 mG.

When placed in service, the CapX2020 345 kV lines will average approximately 20 mG 75 feet from the wires. A standard hair dryer registers between 75 and 200 mG; popular hybrid car models register 6-44 mG.

The CapX2020 utilities are committed to continue following and reviewing the scientific research being done on EMF exposure. Based on the past 30 years of accumulated data and scientific evidence, it is our position that operation of these transmission lines is safe.

— Kevin Lennon, Maple Grove, Great River Energy project manager, CapX2020 Brookings-Hampton project.