Israel Preps World’s First Hybrid Car Radiation Scale

Bron 1: www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2010/03/israel-preps-worlds-first-hybrid-car-radiation-scale/ .
1 maart 2010

Een oud verhaal wat nog niet op StopUMTS stond, wel interessant

Hybrid cars may be green, but are they dangerous? According to Israel’s of Environmental Protection, this may be the case. A research committee funded by the ministry studied radiation from hybrid vehicles over the course of the last nine months, found ‘surplus’ radiation in some models sold in Israel and worldwide, reports Israel’s The Marker.

Not exactly flower power, the radiation in question is cast by the electromagnetic field made by alternating current (AC) flowing from the batteries in the back to the engine up front. The medical implications of this non ionizing radiation, similar to radiation from cellphone antennas, are not yet clear.

The Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) recommends a limit of 1,000 mG (milligauss) for a 24 hour exposure period. While other guidelines pose similar limits, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) deemed extended exposure to electromagnetic fields stronger than 2 mG to be a “possible cause” for cancer. Israel’s Ministry of Health recommends a maximum of 4 mG.

The ministry’s foray into this topic is a culmination of a public outcry resulting from publications in the media regarding possible dangers from radiation in hybrid cars. Last year, Israeli automotive website Walla! Cars conducted a series of tests on the previous generation Toyota Prius, Honda Insight and Honda Civic Hybrid, and recorded radiation figures of up to 100 mG during acceleration. Measurements also peaked when the batteries were either full (and in use) or empty (and being charged from the engine), while normal driving at constant speeds yielded 14 to 30 mG on the Prius, depending on the area of the cabin.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection is expected to publish the results of the study this week. The study will group hybrids sold in Israel into three different radiation groups, reports Israel’s Calcalist. It’s expected that the current-gen Prius will be deemed ‘safe’, while the Honda Insight and Civic Hybrid (as well as the prev-gen Prius) will be listed as emitting ‘excessive’ radiation.

If published, the radiation scale will be the first of its kind in the world, even as hybrid cars top the sale charts in Japan. Local Toyota and Honda dealers, of course, are not exactly gleaming with joy, and already hired the services of two lobbying companies to try and call off the publication of the new scale. The two companies, in a surprising display of unison, claim that many electronic devices and gasoline powered cars emit similar and even higher levels of radiation, and deem the study unfair due to the lack of participation of conventional cars.

Recently, the research committee stirred the public conscious as it advised the Israeli Police against adding hybrid cars to its mostly diesel powered fleet, due to medical hazards to officers exposed to radiation for lengthy periods of time.

Zie ook:
Bron 2 www.next-up.org/Newsoftheworld/Toyota.UK.php .

WARNING

Health: Next-up Organisation advises against using the rear right passenger seat in the Toyota Prius Hybrid.

Several vehicle manufacturers are currently facing various problems that require the recall of particular models, often in great numbers, where the electronic driving controls are affected by both low and high frequency electromagnetic fields.

What is rarely mentioned is the impact on the health of the vehicle occupants of the non-ionising radiation they are bathed in, generated by the electrical equipment or by high frequencies.

Next-up Organisation therefore tested a sophisticated vehicle in various driving modes, a new Toyota Prius Hybrid recalled by a concessionaire in order to retune the ABS assisted braking system by changing the control program in the electronic unit (a fault that causes a slight delay - or complete loss! - of brake power).

In its issue no. 67 in 2002 the popular French science magazine Sciences et Avenir tested 60 cars for the magnetic fields affecting the passengers and presented ''An unprecedented investigation that should prompt certain manufacturers to take action''. See the report below

Even though vehicles at that time did not have as much on-board electronic equipment, the magazine based its conclusions on prolonged exposure to magnetic radiation calculated from the threshold of 0.2 µT or 2 mG, which is the safety level currently recommended by the BioInitiative international scientific consortium.

Since that time, faced with recurrent problems of exceeding the threshold of electromagnetic compatibility, of the bugs that have occurred and of several lawsuits TV reports Fr, certain manufacturers like Renault have provided themselves with accurate instruments to calculate thresholds of immunity, and to develop with the parts manufacturers levels that are far above the present European regulations.
These improvements have made it possible to reduce drastically but temporarily the number of bugs in the vehicles, but since the pollution of the environment by EMFs has increased exponentially in recent years this has more or less cancelled out their effectiveness.

Nowadays certain vehicles are filled with more and more electronic equipment to assist every aspect of driving, and inevitably there is a proliferation of increasingly serious problems often creating bugs in the electromagnetic compatibility, which is becoming a major concern for the manufacturers.

While all vehicles are subjected to external electromagnetic fields, certain models like the Prius Hybrid generate significant fields of magnetic radiation internally because of their design features.

These fields are cancelled out as far as possible by shielding designed to reduce them, but since a metal vehicle acts as a Faraday cage, the radiation that escapes is particularly harmful for the health of people seated within it, and also for the on-board electronics.

A hybrid vehicle makes use of two kinds of motor, a petrol motor and an electric one, used sometimes singly and sometimes together depending on the circumstances. The power for the electric motor is provided by a battery pack that is recharged by means of a complex computerised system. The basic problem comes from the type of current, which is of medium power, not constant but alternating 50 Hz or 60 Hz. This generates intense low frequency magnetic fields such as those observed in the Prius Hybrid.

The two elements making up an electromagnetic field are the electrical field, measured in Volt/metre, and the magnetic field measured in milliGauss.

It is impossible to carry out accurate measurements of EMFs in vehicles according to a strict protocol because of the potential complexity of simultaneous factors in the environment and also because of the inherent fluctuation of the parameters in a vehicle, the reflections, doubling, etc. Thus any series of measurements is impossible to reproduce exactly.

Therefore it is obviously the direct approach that works best in looking for the results that give an indication of the intensity of the local fields, such as that seen in the Prius Hybrid where there is a radiation ''hotspot'' well above normal levels.
While taking readings of the overall EMF, a flow of LF magnetic radiation was observed in the rear right passenger seat. After cross-checking the measurements in the 3 polarisations it gave an average reading of 2491 nT (nanoTesla), or 24 mG (milliGauss).

Even if this figure is below the present European legal limits as defined by ICNIRP, it is a fact that this level, unheard of in a vehicle, exceeds by a long way the safety levels recommended by the international scientific community, such as those of the BioInitiative consortium, which are 1 mG for prolonged exposure in living areas or enclosed spaces (such as a vehicle) and 2 mG for exposure that is temporary or outdoors.

Consequently Next-up Organisation is issuing a warning to strongly discourage any passenger, especially on a long journey, from sitting in the rear right seat of a Prius Hybrid without having noted the strength of the magnetic field and considering its possible effects on their health.

Since this spot is just above the exit point of the power cables supplying electrical current from the well-insulated battery compartment, it seems that there is a gap just here in the protective shield.

Obviously Toyota can always claim that the level of the magnetic field as measured, even though it is exceptional, is still below the limit set by European regulations.



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