Residents of Asikuma Avenue in the Adentan Municipality are up in arms over the proposed installation of double-circuit tower lines within the area.
According to the assembly, the lines are to reduce the load on electricity substations.
But the residents say authorities failed to engage them on the potential health risks of the installation.
They are particularly concerned about the cancer risk.
“It can cause cancer. They know better than we do because children will be having convulsions. When you are pregnant and when you go to the hospital, they will tell you the baby is this and that,” one resident said to Citi News.
“Do I have to sit down for high tension radiation to give me cancer before I react? No. We won’t do it and we will make sure they [assembly] do the right thing,” he added.
Another resident said the assembly needed to adopt a different approach to his power supply intervention.
“All we are asking them to do is to just bury it underground and that way we will feel safe. We are not asking them to stop it because we know we need it.”
“We are asking them to do what they have to do, but not on the surface but underground,” she said.
Health risk
Double-circuit tower lines produce low-frequency electromagnetic fields which come under Non-ionizing radiations which can cause health effects.
Studies have linked electromagnetic fields to cancers and other health problems.
“High Voltage power lines are the most obvious and dangerous culprits, but the same EMFs exist in gradually decreasing levels all along the grid, from substations to transformers to homes,” the electrical engineering-portal notes.
Researchers have also found that children living within 650 feet of power lines had a 70 percent greater risk for leukaemia than children living 2,000 feet away or more.