Hello, I've owned my 2006 Escape Hybrid since last May. I'm trying to find out if there is an increased exposure to harmful levels of radiation with the hybrids. There doesn't seem to be much info on this out there. Searching various search engines I came across the form that was used to chart the measurements of the testing, but didn't see any actual results. I've emailed Ford, but am very disappointed in their responses - they give you the run around and tell you to ask the dealer. The dealer does not have this info. Does anyone know what the radiation levels are in the hybrids? Thanks!
Hello, I've owned my 2006 Escape Hybrid since last May. I'm trying to find out if there is an increased exposure to harmful levels of radiation with the hybrids. There doesn't seem to be much info on this out there. Searching various search engines I came across the form that was used to chart the measurements of the testing, but didn't see any actual results. I've emailed Ford, but am very disappointed in their responses - they give you the run around and tell you to ask the dealer. The dealer does not have this info. Does anyone know what the radiation levels are in the hybrids? Thanks!
Ahhh this explains why my mother inlaws mustache is falling out... its from riding in the back seat near the battery vent!
Im not worried etheir
04' # 5, W/leather & JBL omitted. "Prius, Just ask the person that drives one" 04' Tundra, 18mpg city & 22mpg hwy. 04' Prius, 60mpg city & 53mpg hwy.
Kenstyle NHW20 AERO Kit
Hello, I've owned my 2006 Escape Hybrid since last May. I'm trying to find out if there is an increased exposure to harmful levels of radiation with the hybrids. There doesn't seem to be much info on this out there. Searching various search engines I came across the form that was used to chart the measurements of the testing, but didn't see any actual results. I've emailed Ford, but am very disappointed in their responses - they give you the run around and tell you to ask the dealer. The dealer does not have this info. Does anyone know what the radiation levels are in the hybrids? Thanks!
most "EMI" radiation that people worry about comes from things that are running AC, or alternating current. cars have very little of that running around inside, and my semi-educated opinion is that hybrids are very much in the same category.
there's lots of current, but not much AC, even accounting for DC going on and off for the drive motors, etc.
and most of it would be shielded from you body by the steel in the chassis.
most people get much more EMI from their electric blanket or standing in front of their microwave than from anything you're going to read about in your newspaper or on a magazine stand at the grocery checkout.
or we'd all be sterile or dead by now, anyway.... . like the old joke: did you know that after ten or twenty generations, aceylsalicylic acid causes all offspring to suffer from insterility? of course not! "aspirin" hasn't been in use that long. but just wait.
I find this mildly amusing: two people who make the claim that there is no harm from the hybrid batteries...
One of them looks just like Mr. Enzyte himself. The other, like Mr. Bean. I'm starting to get nervous... ;-)
Seriously, this one has been pretty much beaten to death -- hybrids have been around for many years, with no issues. I seriously doubt that Toyota, Honda, and Ford would follow a path in creating automobiles which would be certain to result lawsuit death to their companies, if radiation was an issue.
I'm almost positive that the car mfg's have done screen room tests for rf emissions on all models. They may have data they can share with the public but good luck getting it.
They aren't going to make a vehicle that radiates signals which would interfere with other radio/comm services. Everything is probably very well shielded.
This would apply to all makes, not just hybrids. (WA1TSL) Ralph..
It has everything to do with the frequency and intensity of radiation; neither of which in a hybrid are anywhere near any recognized limits even from the most conservative scientific viewpoints. I am not a safety engineer nor do I know what the specific exposure rules are, so all I am really saying is that its so low as to be almost background.
Almost all of the electricity in a car is DC. DC electricity cannot radiate. Where it is being changed around (inverter, motor, DC-DC converter) it is sealed in a metal (conductive) case. Radiation below the plasma frequency is not capable of penetrating a conductor of any reasonable thickness. Period. That's largely why metals are shiny and reflect light and why radios don't work well in a steel building.
Now having said that, there is always going to be some leakage. So lets look at this example:
Take a cellphone operating around 1GHz, putting out about 1 Watt of power about 1cm from your ear...
for every 10,000 random collisions among molecules in the outer ear due purely to the fact that your body has a temperature, there is on average 1 photon from the cellphone antenna that hits your ear, and that single photon has 1/10,000 (by coincidence only) of the energy of the other collisions. So the cellphone contributes 1/100,000,000 more thermal energy to your ear than is already there.
(I worked out this math a long time ago in grad school and its roots are lost to my memory, but the result stuck indelibly in my head)
Now a hybrid motor may be putting out/using kilowatts, but a small fraction of that is wasted to EM radiation as radio frequency and heat, a smaller fraction still is leaked out of the casing. And you are sitting a meter or so away, behind several other large metal shielding objects.
For nonionizing radiation (anything under hard UV) the ONLY possible physiological effect is from thermal damage- burns and cellular damage caused by heating. Assuming that you don't have some life-support electronics or something.
I hope those numbers make you feel a little better about the chances of something bad happening.
edit:
to clarify: A cellphone next to your skull adds an almost unmeasureable amount of energy to your body. A very leaky hybrid inverter will add far less than that. It took NIH, NIST, and the entire telecom industry decades to even be able to measure the difference in energy. There are far more serious things to worry about- like getting a sunburn because your window is open while keeping the AC off to save fuel in the summer.
Although I am a lawyer now, I have a physics degree from Stanford University, so I have a certain amount of credibility when I respond to this thread. I also want to say that I am responding in the hope that what I have to say might allay what seem to be your fears on this issue.
First: although there is a fair bit of media hype about 'radiation from power lines' and the 'danger' of radiation from cellphones and how it all may cause cancer, it is my understanding of the scientific principles involved that none of those fears or warnings are based on sound science. Radiation from cell phones, cars, even powerlines, is not going to give you cancer. You will be exposed to more radiation from spending an afternoon in the sun than you will from spending a year chatting on a cell phone. The most 'radioactive' activity you will ever experience in your life is getting on an airplane, because being above so much of Earth's protective atmosphere and being closer to the sun, even for just a few hours, exposes you to as much radiation as you would normally get in several months... and it's NOT harmful. Frequent air travellers are not endangering their lives, because levels of exposure that are sufficient to cause harm are SO much higher than levels experienced on airplanes, even cumulatively.
Second, consumer safety standards in this country for acceptable levels of emissions from household products are set at incredibly low levels. To illustrate, let me give you an example of how low radiation safety standards at research labs are, and keep in mind that the public safety requirements for consumer products are about twice as stringent: I spent time working at a lab (and became certified in working with radioactive materials) where every worker had to wear a badge to work every day to track our radiation exposure. The badges were collected periodically and tested to see how much radiation we had come in contact with. The one and only time (in over twenty years) that a radiation safety incident ever happened at the lab was when a worker turned in a badge that showed an unexpectedly high exposure, and his whole department was shut down immediately until they determined the source of the 'leak'-- he had accidentally taken the badge with him on a three-hour airplane trip.
There used to be many more sources of radiation in our households; certain kinds of paint, particularly if it was glow-in-the dark, or the type used on a particular brand of dishes popular in the 60s, but it is all very well understood and regulated now. Now, if you're going to be taking the hybrid battery apart with your bare hands, I make no assertions either way, but as far as the normal use of normal products goes, you are safe. The sun is the most 'dangerous' source of radiation that you encounter in your day-to-day life, (so wear sunscreen!) but none of the rest of it is going to expose you to enough radiation to hurt you- certainly not a hybrid car battery. Not a microwave, not a cell phone, and not a power line, unless you happen to fall on it and electrocute yourself. Anyone who tells you otherwise is relying on junk science.
Last edited by leahbeatle; 03-07-2006 at 12:41 PM.
Being a lawyer, I probably should have added some qualifiers. There are some obvious sources of radiation that I didn't mention- getting x-rayed at the doctor's or dentist's office being the primary one- but I feel that doctors and dentists can do their part to warn you about that and put you under lead aprons without my interference. Furthermore, if you work in particular fields, or with particular products, then hopefully you are well trained for it and don't need advice from me.
It's just that the consumer fears which have been fanned by a few (probably well-intentioned) but under-informed agitators may never die down, no matter how many scientists speak up and try to explain. That's the nature of fear. It's hard to tell someone who has been warned about something that there's nothing to fear- they wonder if you have an agenda or if they should believe you, but it's much easier to think, well, I'll avoid it 'just in case' to 'be careful.' I find that frustrating, which is perhaps why my rhetoric gets a little overblown.
Can you be more specific about the radiation? From what I can tell, these things are not nuclear powered .
There are too many people worried about EM radiation (the worry causes real harm) unless you spend 10hrs a day sitting on a vacuum cleaner, then I'd be more concerned about ear damage from the noise than from the electro-magnetic emmisions. None of these emmisions are ionizing radiation and there is no concrete proof that I am aware of (I studied this some years ago) that non-ionizing radiation at power levels that we are exposed to (e.g. cell phones, power lines etc...) cause problems.
Hybrid and electro radiation?
. like the old joke: did you know that after ten or twenty generations, aceylsalicylic acid causes all offspring to suffer from insterility? of course not! "aspirin" hasn't been in use that long. but just wait. 
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