At two or three year intervals from 1997 to 2011, Ipsos MORI interviewed approximately 2000 adults (chosen as a nationally representative quota), paid for by National Grid.
See also other opinion polling on EMFs
National Grid indicated the type of information it wished to obtain. The questions themselves were worded by Ipsos MORI and the poll administered and analysed by them. Ipsos MORI were told to find out the genuine extent of awareness and concern among the public without biasing the answer either way by the way the questions were phrased.
This summary gives, where possible, the figure for any mention of overhead power lines, pylons, substations, or EMFs. In the earlier surveys this was not always extracted as an aggregate figure so the figure for either “pylons and power lines” or just “pylons” is given, as indicated in the table. The figures for substations have always been lower than for pylons/overhead power lines and tend to make only a marginal difference to the totals.
Further questions, phrased differently in different years, have addressed views about the strength of the scientific evidence etc, but are not presented here.
The 2009 survey was conducted at a time of some concern about swine flu, which seems to have reduced the level of concern shown about all other health issues in that year.
|
Question |
1997 |
1999 |
2001 |
2003 |
2006 |
2009 |
2011 |
| 1 |
What issues, if any, to do with industry, public health and the environment in Britain concern you most these days?[1]
[no prompts] |
1% |
1% |
1% |
1% |
2% |
3% |
3% |
|
any mention |
pylons |
pylons / power lines |
any mention |
| 2 |
Which of the following have you heard anything about recently in the industrial environment context/context of human health issues?[2]
[prompted with list] |
35% |
34% |
48% |
38% |
39% |
18% |
21% |
|
any mention |
pylons / power lines |
any mention |
| 3 |
Which, if any, particularly concern you these days (because of these health issues)?[3]
[prompted with list] |
9% |
10% |
13% |
10% |
10% |
5% |
7% |
|
any mention |
pylons / power lines |
any mention |
For comparison, from the 2011 results, the pylon/power line/substation scores compared to some other issues were:
|
Question |
2011 |
| 1 |
What issues, if any, to do with industry and the environment in Britain concern you most these days?
[no prompts] |
Pollution 22%
Waste disposal/litter 14%
Global warming/climate change 9%
Traffic congestion 12%
Nuclear waste 5%
Pylons/power lines/substations 3%
Swine/pandemic flu 2%
Mobile phone masts 1%
|
| 2 |
Which of the following have you heard anything about recently in the context of human health issues?
[prompted with list] |
Passive smoking 37%
Nuclear power stations 27%
Mobile phone masts 25%
GM crops 23%
Pandemic Flu 22%
Pylons/power lines/substations 21% |
| 3 |
Which, if any, particularly concern you these days because of these health issues?
[prompted with list] |
Passive smoking 18%
GM crops 11%
Nuclear power stations 11%
Pandemic Flu 9%
Mobile phones masts 8%
Pylons/power lines/substations 7% |
If you are interested in how the results break down by age, social class, part of the UK etc, please see
the full tables of results
The 2011 survey involved face-to-face interviews with a sample of 2022 adults representative of the population of Great Britain. Fieldwork took place in the period 2-8 September 2011.
In accordance with National Grid's contract with Ipsos MORI, this summary of the results has been approved by Ipsos MORI as a fair summary.
[1] Wording up to 2003 was: "What issues, if any, to do with industry and the environment in Britain concern you most these days?"
[2] Wording was "context of human health" from 2001 onwards
[3] "because of these health issues" added from 2003