As solar farms populate every county in the UK, let me ask you something about your health.
Yes, I know health is precious and most of us don't think about it until one day we wake up knowing something isn't quite right with us, and we go to the doctor, and we are sent for tests...and there is that awful sensation of waiting for results, and quietly trying not to think or panic about what might be revealed in the coming days and weeks, and how we will cope if something isn't 'right' with us any more. Do come up for breath...
If you live near a solar farm, should you be worried about your health?
Have you noticed the incessant humming that pervades the air 24/7 like millions of crickets or locusts rubbing their legs together and perhaps making it difficult for you to focus or sleep at night owing to the continuous low level sounds?
If you live near a solar farm, have you noticed an increase in inexplicable headaches, migraines, skin rashes, and low-grade infections that seem to take forever for you to get over?
If you live near a solar farm, do you know how close is safe for you to live near it?
- next door?
<300 m away?
<500m away?
< a mile away?
Admittedly, there is very little research into EMF (electromagnetic frequencies) and solar farms, and how it may/may not impact health. What research there is mostly comes from the USA (with a few articles from Australia) and it indicates that if you live next door to a 'small' solar farm i.e. no more than 10 acres of land occupied by solar panels or with a 5MW capacity, then you would need to live at least 200 metres, or 0.12 miles away or 656 feet away from it.
That's the safety zone.
Anything else is in the hot zone.
However, if you live next door to a 'large' solar farm i.e. with 50 MW solar capacity occupying 80.4 hectares or 199 acres of land, then you would need to live, for safety, 0.3 miles away or 500+ metres away or 1640 feet away.
The bigger the solar farm and its occupation of the land space, logically it appears, the further away you need to be located.
As I write this post there is a new solar farm being installed just outside my village. Our home will be located in the hot zone. We will be living 0.2 kms or within 322metres of it.
The councillors who approved this monstrosity most likely did so relying on 'faulty' data supplied by the company who wanted the economic advantages that this development brings. If the data wasn't faulty then the councillors did not ask the right questions or undertake any research into the numerous articles available to the public on the internet and via various books.
It was calculated that the solar farm would be located 3 miles from the nearest town. Unfortunately, and noone appears to have asked, is that calculation did not take into account the residential villages and hamlets that would be affected and which lie in the path of that 3 mile zone.
Those residing in the town will be in the safe zone.
The rest of us and our health will be hanging in the balance in the hot zones i.e. those not considered to be in the safe zone for residential living. Oh. My. I feel like I have somehow been transported to a scene in The Wizard of Oz, where we are expected to just comply and believe the great and powerful Oz to know what is best for us all. Personally, I have never found that a 'one-size-fits-all' approach works.
The largest Solar Farm is still, at the time of writing, under debate. It is located in Oxfordshire and is known by its abbreviation as "Botley West". When installed it is proposed that it will range from Botley which is located near Oxford, all the way across the fields to Woodstock, Tackley and Kidlington all located in West Oxfordshire.
It is a vast site predominantly owned by the Blenheim Palace estate.
If implemented it purports to service 330,000 homes supposedly providing enough electricity to every home in Oxfordshire, but at the same time sacrificing important land where crops have been grown for hundreds of years.
Food security for the future v. electricity for thousands of EMF devices that create electromagnetic smog? It should be a no-brainer, however, there is less economic benefit in farming than there is in sacrificing the land for this ill-conceived venture. To me, having a way to grow our food for the future is much more important to secure now, particularly as allies who the UK has relied upon for decades appear to become less dependable.
When you look at the advice provided by EMF protection companies, there are only two options available:
a) buy their ultra expensive kit and hope, fingers crossed, that you have covered every inch of yourself, your home and sleeping space with EMF protective equipment;
or
b) move house.
For people like me who are ultra sensitive to electromagnetic frequencies (EMF) the choices are rather stark as the UK proceeds to cover itself like a rash, with EMF solar farms.
Yes, there are those in government and in the industry who say "there's no evidence that EMF affects health" either positively or negatively because what they are relying upon is that you want your devices powered much more than you want anything else. You are happy to pay extortionate prices to power your devices, so that you don't have to think about where the electricity is coming from to generate your entertainment and distractions from the 'bigger' picture, so that by the time you have woken up to the problems that this type of tech may cause, it will all be too late.
I seem to recall that something similar was said about tobacco not being a threat to health in the 1960s when the Tobacco industry had research that proved that the additives in tobacco were carcinogenic.
Happy to leave your health and food security in the hands of the government and the so-called 'green industrial complex'?
Trust that they have YOUR & your family's best interests at heart?
If you find it comforting to believe that, then good luck.
[Image credit: Canva]