Although experts in related fields and various media have persevered to refute the rumors, the rumors about electric vehicles not only did not stop, but instead blossomed and intensified.
A search on Baidu for the keywords “electric vehicle” and “fertility” will give you more than 833,000 results, the earliest of which can be traced back to 2014. Until last week, some friends asked me in the group whether buying an electric car would affect my fertility plan?
“Mencius: Li Lou Shang” has a cloud: there are three kinds of unfilial piety, and no descendant is the greatest. Being in the world’s largest country in the production and sales of new energy vehicles and radiation protection clothing for pregnant women, we feel the need to analyze for everyone: Will electric vehicles affect the reproductive health of the Chinese people?
And, in addition to the explosion of the battery, can the electromagnetic radiation of electric vehicles cause people to die directly?
Anxiety about electric vehicles, not just mileage
Today, the mileage anxiety of electric vehicle owners has become a well-known problem in the world. However, the urban legend that electric vehicles generate electromagnetic radiation and ultimately affect health is also undergoing continuous iteration with the development of smart vehicles. From baldness and hair loss at first, to impotence and even sudden death, it was as if the Chernobyl nuclear power plant was not in Ukraine, but under the driver’s seat of every electric car.
Obviously, when the word radiation is mentioned, what comes to everyone’s mind is the cow with two heads in Chernobyl, and the waste water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant. However, the cause of the above-mentioned tragedies is the pollution of radioactive elements caused by the leakage and explosion of nuclear power plants, and the culprit is ionizing radiation. However, although it is only one word different from electromagnetic radiation, the impact of the two on people is worlds apart.
According to a popular science article on the official website of the Northwest Nuclear and Radiation Safety Supervision Station of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, ionizing radiation refers to rays (dual forms of particles or waves) with short wavelengths, high frequencies and high energy. The so-called “ionization” refers to the process of turning uncharged substances into charged substances under the action of rays. Ionizing radiation can release one or several electrons from atoms, molecules, or other bound states. If it is irradiated on the human body, it will cause the atoms in our cells to lose electrons, thus causing the molecules and tissue structures composed of these atoms to not work properly.
For example, when the DNA structure is damaged, the normal process of cell division and proliferation is blocked, resulting in abnormal proliferation and the formation of tumors, thereby causing cancer. The main types of ionizing radiation are alpha rays, beta rays, X rays, gamma rays (Dr. Banner was over-irradiated by this ray and became the Hulk) and neutron radiation. Among them, X-rays and γ-rays are electromagnetic waves, but due to their higher energy, they have entered the category of ionizing radiation.
But obviously, it is difficult for us to come into contact with radioactive substances such as nuclear power plants, atomic bombs, and nuclear wastes in our daily life and work. Most people seldom go to the hospital for frequent X-ray, MRI, CT and other medical device testing. In contrast, electromagnetic radiation is much more in our lives.
From the definition of physics, the flow of electric current in an electromagnetic field produces electromagnetic radiation. That is to say, whether it is a light bulb,Micro-wave ovenstillcell phoneAnd communication base stations, as long as an appliance is powered on or running, it will emit radiation. These electromagnetic radiations will generate induced currents in the human body when approaching, and cause heating and even electric shock effects when the current intensity reaches a certain level. If you get too close to an environment with too high electromagnetic field intensity, it will inevitably cause danger to people, including but not limited to sticking your head into the microwave oven, staying close to the small sun for a long time, and touching high-voltage lines.
So the question arises, will sitting in an electric car affect your health due to electromagnetic radiation?
Do not believe rumors, do not pass rumors
According to the reference standard given by the World Health Organization, the strength of electromagnetic fields below 100μT will not cause harm to people. In this regard, my country has also issued corresponding national standards. According to the Regulations on Electromagnetic Radiation Protection (GB8702-88), the safety critical value of electromagnetic radiation exposure to the public is 0.4W/m².
So how much electromagnetic radiation does everyone actually receive in electric vehicles? According to media reports, some enthusiastic car owners have tested their Model S P85D, and the result is that the main driver’s seat is 0.87μW/cm² (the standard value is not greater than 40μW/cm², and the BMW 535Li is 00.1μW/cm²), and the passenger seat is 0.87μW/cm². 0.47µW/cm² (00.4µW/cm² for BMW 535Li), 19.5µW/cm² in the central control area, 16.1µW/cm² when driving at 60-80km/h, and 23.9µW/cm² when accelerating from 100km/h. It can be seen from this test result that although electric vehicles have higher radiation than traditional fuel vehicles, they are far from reaching the critical value of national standards. μW and W are also more than an order of magnitude worse.
In fact, the automotive industry has always attached great importance to issues related to electromagnetic radiation. However, everyone’s research is more from the perspective of vehicle electromagnetic compatibility. After all, there are many sensors, controllers and other related components related to electronic control on smart cars today. If the electromagnetic radiation is too large, it will interfere with the normal operation of the above components.
A university scholar who is engaged in communication engineering research and has joint research with automobile and military enterprises told Huxiu that in her daily work, she usually revolves around GB 34660 “Electromagnetic Compatibility Requirements and Test Methods for Road Vehicles”, GB 18387 “Limits and Measurement Methods of Electromagnetic Field Emission Intensity of Electric Vehicles”, National Standard 14023 “Radio Disturbance Characteristics of Vehicles, Ships and Internal Combustion Engines, Limits and Measurement Methods for Protecting Off-vehicle Receivers”, and according to requirements in the anechoic chamber carry out testing. “But our priority is anti-interference. We all take it as a joke about urban legends such as brain tumors growing on mobile phones and being unable to turn on WiFi during pregnancy.”
In fact, as early as 2017, an industry research and consulting organization carried out research on the electromagnetic safety of electric vehicles. At the end of the year, the China Automotive Technology and Research Center released the results of the “2017 EV-TEST First Test”. The evaluation vehicles of this evaluation system are all “purchased from dealers at their own expense by the EV-TEST Management Center of China Automotive Technology and Research Center based on the principle of independent selection and random sampling without prior notification to the manufacturer.” At present, the evaluation system has been improved for several years, including the following test items:
The red circle part is related to electromagnetic radiation protection.
However, the main focus of this system is still in the field of vehicles, and electromagnetic radiation-related content is more focused on anti-interference. Regarding whether the vehicle under test has electromagnetic radiation leakage that affects human health, it is simply placed on the deduction item.
However, after publishing the test results for 5 years, “EV-TEST China Electric Vehicle Evaluation System” will no longer be released after 2021, and even its official website “ev-test.catarctc.com” cannot be opened. It can be seen that even China Automotive Research Institute, an independent and objective third party, does not feel that it is of much value to spend energy on “digging out the safety issues of electric vehicles”.
According to current scientific research, objects such as metal and reinforced concrete walls can effectively shield electromagnetic radiation. When it comes to electric vehicles, the issue of water discharge and sealing of power batteries and motors has always been the focus of various car companies. These components that generate a large (relatively large) amount of electromagnetic radiation during operation are generally sealed by the body and protective panels. Therefore, these measures will further reduce the risk of leakage of electromagnetic radiation.
Then some people may also ask: Will the high-performance computers, sensors and even the central control large screen on the smart car also emit electromagnetic radiation, making the male compatriots in the car “more than enough?”
Electromagnetic radiation in life does not kill people
When you search on Baidu with the keywords “electromagnetic radiation” and “health”, there are many real-name certified doctors on various medical platforms swearing that “electromagnetic radiation is harmful to health and can cause leukemia, lymphoma, Brain tumors, pregnant women miscarriage, fetal malformations” and a series of diseases. But if you jump out of the shackles of the Chinese Internet and go overseas, you will find that things are not as terrifying as these doctors exaggerate.
Following the guidance of a medical doctor engaged in cardiovascular research, the author came to the National Health Institute’s official website for a search. The database is a world-renowned retrieval platform for medical academic papers and reports. The richness of relevant topics reflects the focus of global medical elites.
In other words, if an urban legend has no results in the database, medical researchers around the world don’t see it as a problem at all.
When I entered “erectile dysfunction” and “electromagnetic radiation”, none of the 34 results presented by the system were related to “male sexual dysfunction.” In fact, if you choose to drop the keyword “radiation”, the system shows several articles describing the test for “Erectile Dysfunction After Prostatectomy with Low Intensity Extracorporeal Electromagnetic Pulses”.
In fact, rumors about sudden death (myocardial infarction) caused by electromagnetic radiation also lack factual support at the level of medical literature. After the author added myocardial infarction (myocardial infarction) to electromagnetic input, the research conclusions of many literatures were “unable to prove that there is a connection between the two”. The authors of one of the papers even pointed out that fetal malformations and miscarriages of pregnant female workers in electronic equipment factories are likely to be caused by organic chemical solvent contamination in related production processes, rather than electromagnetic radiation.
Regarding the impact of electromagnetic radiation on health, the industry is basically based on the conclusion of the World Health Organization: the current evidence is not enough to confirm that exposure to low-intensity electromagnetic fields will cause any health consequences. However, some understanding of biological effects Differences remain and further research is needed.
However, at the level of social operation, the government and enterprises give priority to efficiency. The scholar mentioned above who has been engaged in communication engineering research for many years told Huxiu that 30 years ago, she also received a “microwave subsidy” from the unit to compensate for the electromagnetic radiation that the researchers encountered during the experiment, ” It’s about a few dollars a year, and I’ve received it for several years.”
“what about now?”
“In the 1990s, mobile phone base stations disappeared after they became popular.” The researcher said in a regretful tone, “because the electromagnetic spectrum of mobile phone base stations is basically the same as that covered by our microwave subsidies.”
write at the end
Although there are currently no research findings that electromagnetic radiation affects human health, it does not mean that anyone can ride an electric car with peace of mind. In the Tesla Model S product manual, there is a special page that states the interference of the vehicle’s electronic system with the implantable cardiac pacemaker.
In addition, whether newer technologies like wireless charging of electric vehicles will affect human health due to greater electromagnetic radiation remains to be proven by time.
However, if you read this article, we still have male users who are worried that electromagnetic radiation will make them “more than enough”. The author recommends to relax your mind and strengthen your exercise. After all, compatriots who have read popular science articles should understand:
Many times this disease is actually a heart disease.
