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And what’s transpiring in your home?
Dear Reader,
There’s a lot of mis- and disinformation floating around out there. Some of it is the product of genuine confusion. After all, we’re trying a lot of new things to address our climate crisis, and “new,” for a lot of us, generates anxiety and unease. But there are also more sinister forces at work, including industries with business models that rely on sticking to the status quo. And the status quo is using and burning fossil fuels to move ourselves around, grow and transport our food, and provide the materials for many of the products we use each day.
So what Dot plans to do each Monday is bust a myth. And by “bust,” I mean take a closer look and determine whether it’s all true, sorta true, or totally false. (See Dot’s short-hand legend for the tl;dr version.)
As fate would have it, Dot sent the idea for this new Monday feature out to the universe only to have a pertinent question from a reader land in my inbox two days later. The question was this:
Should we be concerned about EMFs in EVs, or are they just myths?
Good question, Reader! But first, let’s go to our acronym-to-English dictionary so all Readers understand that EMF refers to “electro magnetic field,” and EVs are, well, electric vehicles. (I confess, I had to Google the acronym.) And we all know that electric vehicles, en masse, are a relatively new way to move ourselves around and have been subject to a lot of disinformation, mostly disseminated by those whose salaries are paid, in some way, shape, or form, by oil and gas.
But we want to be careful not to dismiss legitimate concerns just because they don’t line up with what we want to be true. So … is this disinformation?
Not exactly. EVs do, in fact, generate some electromagnetic field from their electrical systems. Hybrids, too. For that matter, so do conventional gas-powered vehicles, though not as much. The primary sources of EMF in electric vehicles include high-voltage battery packs (typically operating at 400 – 800 volts), electric motors and power inverters, charging systems (especially during fast charging), and regenerative braking systems.
But though EVs (and hybrids) emit greater amounts of EMF than gas-powered vehicles, that’s a concern only if it's dangerous, and the consensus, as it stands right now, is that it’s not. The German Federal Office for Radiation Protection notes that a selection of electric vehicles complied with the recommendations for protection against the health effects of magnetic fields. What’s more, there’s no indication that EV drivers are exposed to stronger EMF than drivers of conventional or hybrid vehicles. An EU-funded, seven-country study found that EV driver exposure is lower than 20% of the not-to-exceed value recommended by the International Commission on Non-Ionising Radiation Protection (ICNIRP). Even the highest values of EMF exposure in EVs — which occur when starting the car or when it’s charging — do not yield any health concerns.
To sum up, most studies confirm that EMF exposure from EVs remains within international safety standards. There are some potential caveats: People with pacemakers or implants might be at greater risk of issues and should consult their doctors before driving an EV. While exposure remains well within safety standards, there’s less research around longtime use, which might raise concerns for those who spend considerable time in an EV (delivery or rideshare drivers). And finally, while the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer currently lists low-frequency magnetic fields as “possibly carcinogenic to humans,” it’s worth noting that this is the same classification that applies to coffee and pickles.
Therefore, regarding the potential assertion that EVs emit dangerous EMFs, Dot declares it “myth.”
Myth-bustingly,
Dot
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