movingaway

Is it me or there electricity pylons everywhere (well almost) you look here in Oz? Is there a reason for this?

Amazulu

It's you.

Centurion

Because most of the cables etc in the UK are underground whereas ours are not. Hence the noticeable increase in electricity lines.

movingaway

Obviously not

movingaway

Thanks, why haven't they put them underground. They're such an eyesore and I'm sure not good for your health.

Pollyana

Because they say it costs too much to move them. Personally, looking at numbers of poles that come down every time there is a storm, I think it would be cheaper in the long run to move it all underground.

They did recently put the cables into our street underground - it took 6 weeks of digging up the road, all day every day (not good for someone who works nights!) and thats in a street of only about 20 houses.

NKSK version 2

Yes but that's because they had one man doing the digging and 12 others watching (and two men doing lollipop duty).

Unions eh?

Amazulu

Why?

movingaway

Don't you read the papers? There has been huge debate about the effects of living close to pylons, possible links to cancer, and some say proven links.

moneypenny20

Possible links and some say

There's a huge uproar in a suburb down here against extending the huge pylons along a stretch of the GC. They should be underground and in this respect I have to agree but more from an aesthetic point of view. They are damn ugly. When they're covering long distances thoug, I don't think it's practical to put them underground and definitely (unfortunately) on our road, it would be a nightmare but then I live on a very long ridge that rises and drops hugely and the idea of them attempting it fills me with horror

Amazulu

Some say, some don't. The Pylons that are rumoured to cause health problems are the EHV (extra high voltage) 275-400kV transmission lines that are mounted on really high steel pylons that you see in the countryside or coming into the outskirts of cities. The overhead lines on wooden poles that you see in the suburbs are completely different. They are MV/LV (medium/low voltage) 33kV/415V distribution lines and have no know health risks.

movingaway

Can't say I notice the ones on the wooden poles. The ones that I'm referring to are the huge metal pylons that don't seem to be just in the countryside or outskirts of cities. All close to housing, far too close.

Amazulu

Fair enough. I would never buy a house near a transmission line.

MartinLuther

They're above ground in the UK as well. I haven't noticed more of them here compared to the UK but there are more poles in the city than you would see in a UK city.

MarkMC

Why is it any more of a health risk being above ground?

The electric field is the same.

Its just a case of out of site out of mind for the buried stuff.