EMF - Seeing is Believing

EMF.  Three letters which give very serious cause for concern.  Whether from cell phones, computer routers or overhead power lines, this EMF energy is all around us.

It's one thing to know it exists, but another to be able to actually see it, or at least see the effects.  We know the wind exists, because we can see it moving a field of wheat, and in the same way there are ways of seeing EMF energy in the world around us too.

Richard Box, artist in residence at Bristol University's Physics department, struck upon a remarkable idea for an art installation after a chance conversation with a friend.  ‘He was telling me he used to play with a fluorescent tube under the pylons by his house,’ says Box. ‘He said it lit up like a light sabre.’

Bristol University's Physics department had been leading some pioneering work on the effects of magnetic and electrical fields on human health.  Richard had been collaborating with the departments resident glass blower to create art from neon tubes.  But in talking to Denis Henshaw, professor of radiation effects, whose work inspired an investigation by the National Radiological Protection Board, he struck upon an idea to show the bleed off energy from the overhead power lines.   "I wanted to describe what happened within the field," Mr Box said. "There is always a power loss along any overhead power line, and the fluorescent tubes- all 1,301 of them- make the power loss visible. The result has surpassed all my expectations."

Professor Henshaw praised the work saying, 'It's very creative and it illustrates graphically that power lines do indeed have these electrical fields around them. Even when the bulbs are on the way out, and start flashing or flickering in their sockets, they still light up under the power lines.'

The amount of light emitted by the tubes varies with the weather conditions and the presence of someone walking among them can plunge those tubes close to them into darkness; the human body absorbing the EMF energy instead of the tube.  'You affect the lights by your proximity', says Richard, 'because you're a much better conductor than a glass tube. And there's sound as well as light - a crackling that corresponds to the flashing of the lights. There's a certain smell too, and your hair stands slightly on end.'

The pylons used in Richard’s installation are not typical, but one of a handful specially designed at a reduced height for use when a 400KV line came close to the flight path of Bristol International Airport.  And although most electricity pylons are built at a greater height, the art installation does illustrate quite dramatically, the EMF energies created by mains power lines.