Sir, – Having had first-hand experience for 30 years of ESB/EirGrid’s obligation to “plan the electricity transmission network in the most safe, secure, economic and reliable way possible”, we take issue with John Lowry’s letter (November 25th). Under this benign stewardship, we somehow find ourselves with a 400,000 volt line running over our garden, 35 metres from our home, with the promise (threat) of another 400,000 volt line being added 10 metres closer to our home, if EirGrid has its way.
Mr Lowry adds that EMF does not cause any adverse health effects “at levels encountered in our everyday environment”. Exactly whose everyday environment is he writing about?
Both my wife and I have been treated for cancer in the past three years. My wife has suffered for the past seven years from nerve pain as a result of Shingles infection, which she believes is related to exposure to high levels of ELF, which causes nerve and muscle stimulation. These levels will increase if EirGrid has its way.
Many papers have been published indicating that EMF exposure reduces melatonin in humans and animals. Having had our melatonin levels measured on three separate occasions, we find that melatonin levels in our bodies are so low as to be unmeasureable.
Mr Lowry also states, “Eirgrid follows best international practice in designing the transmission system”. This is not our experience. The 400,000 volt line that has run over our garden for the past 30 years, was routed away from a straight line which would have carried it over open farmland, and instead followed a “zigzag” course to the Woodland substation, bringing it close to people’s homes and over our back garden. We have never received any credible justification for this diversion from either ESB or EirGrid. Continuing the theme of “best international practice”, we were told, matter-of-factly, by an EirGrid project manager that it could put the new line over our house without infringing the International Commission on Non-Ionising Radiation Protection standards. We were also told it had abandoned the precautionary principle, because it is not EU law. It doesn’t have to, so it won’t.
Legislation in this area is loaded totally in favour of EirGrid, with no protection in place for ordinary citizens and no effective appeals process.
We’re at a watershed now. It is time for public representatives to look, listen and do what they were elected to do: represent the people. – Yours, etc,
MIKE SHERIDAN,
Curraghtown,
Drumree, Co Meath.
Sir, – The greatest boon of 20th-century civilisation, the greatest contributor, for the majority of the world’s population, to health, safety and quality of life, was and is an almost universally available stable, safe, cheap and reliable electricity supply. Many of your correspondents, on the other hand, seem to regard as agents of some sort of malign conspiracy the organisations that maintain and improve this supply in Ireland.
Self-interested pressure groups which imperil this continuing effort should be resisted. (This applies incidentally to the numerous passengers on the “renewables” bandwagon who are promoting the ludicrous plan to duplicate at enormous cost, and at the expense of consumers, 40 per cent of our electricity generation capacity with subsidised wind power). – Yours, etc,
TOM WEYMES, BE,
Mount Merrion,
Co Dublin.