Magnetic fields on hybrid cars & cancer
Created January 25, 2007, at 2:42 pm by willyj
Has anyone heard of any health hazard applied to Hybrid cars due to magnetic radiation resulting from the high voltage cables and electric motor when in operation.
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I have a Honda Insight, which I love. I have had it for 8 years, because I do a lot of driving for work. I was very concerned to hear that there could be a cancer risk from driving these cars, and would like to know more. I don't want to get rid of the car, but I would like to take whatever precautions might be recommended. I do have an implantable defibrillator, and my cardiologist said that the electrical field in my car would pose no danger to that.
There is no appreciable leakage of magentic fields from the Hybrid systems. Lost magnetic energy is LOST POWER to the car. See the "first law of thermodynamics" (loosely, you can't get something for nothing). And Hybrids are designed from the ground up for minimum energy loss.
If you take a magnetic compass, and check around your car, you WILL find a source of magentic field energy in every car:
THE SPEAKERS!! They put HUMONGUOS magnets in these car speakers to give them megawatt power output at single digit frequencies.
The "hybrid" systems are completely shielded, and cause no magentic fields that can be measured in the passenger compartment.
p.s.: the so called "cancer" risk from magnetic fields is purely urban myth. No cancers have ever been linked to "normal" levels of magnetic energy found in the normal home/work/automotive environment.
But that never stops the Luddites from claiming that everything man-made causes every disease known to man.
p.p.s- I am an electronics engineer, but I do not work for the automotive industry, so you can trust me.
Good answer, gschaut. True about the JBL speakers used in Toyotas, though the same is also true about many other speaker systems out there. That's why it's a bad idea to store audio or video tapes near (or on top of) a speaker - they get demagnetized and whatever information is stored on them is deteriorated or lost completely.
Storing magnetic tape "near" a speaker should not damage them.
There is a concept in magnetic tape called coercivity. Basically, there is a minimum magentic field strength needed to erase or record a magnetic tape. Below the critical threashold field strength, and the magnetic tape NEVER erases.
Think of a 20 amp fuse. You can put 19 amps thru it for years, and it never blows. But put 30 amps thru a 20 amp fuse, and BANG! Blown fuse.
Coersivity levels vary from tape to tape (that's the reason for the metal/oxide switch on the recorder). But in general, the magnetic fields present 6 inches or more from a speaker will not damage magnetic tape.
What DOES destroy tape is mechanical abrasion. CLEAN YOUR HEADS!!! You would not believe how many times I have seen tape machines that are CAKED in debris from cheap tape that sheds oxide all over the heads, like a persian cat sheds fur in August.
I loved your comments. I just bought a Honda Civic Hybrid and the battery is stored in behind the back seat. My kids sit there. I took my Gaussmeter and the numbers were, in my opinion, high (10 mG). I then realized I have an AC Meter. Does the reading on that device an indication of possible high EMFs?
Thanks for your help,
Fariss
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