I just purchased my car last month, now I'm hearing more about the EMF that are dangerous and pose a health to our children. The children sit right on top of this battery in the back seat. Has anyone heard about the article in the New York times recently? Has anyone ever done a reading with a EMF meter? After only one month, it would be such a big ecomomic loss to have to trade in my car.

 

If you read the article, you'll note that there is no agreement in the medical community that EMF exposure causes any problems.

It's right up there with the magnetic bracelets to cure arthritis as far as I'm concerned.

 

Probably high levels of EMF are dangerous as a cellular level and there are studies which "suggest" this is true. I'm not aware of any studies done at the still relatively low levels being emmited by devices like hybrid/electric cars or cell phones.
Probably you best bet on deciding how to act is to look at the cell phone scare of a few years ago, where one or two people devoloped cancers close to where they normally held their phone to the head. After those reports, many people started complainin of headaches and other ailments. A few years later, and no one talks about it any more because no research could link any significant risk to phones. I suspect there is already research being done by credible universities on EMF levels and cell damage. Keep an eye out for links to reports in major medical publications. If they ever put something out, it will be more specific about levels of risk and then you can make a good judgement, assuming there are any non-hybrids/electrics by that time.

I suspect your more likely to be "damaged" by worrying about it, then they are actually being "exposed" to it. If there are any risks, they would almost certainly be offset by the reduction of fumes they are exposed to. You didn't mention your age, but how long ago was it that none of us wore seatbelts and would hop from the front to the back. Sure there was additional risk, and lives were lost, but most of us lived on and are now that much more aware.

I just reread this....I don't know if I helped or harmed...sorry.

 

Just to add a few more points:

Look into the controversy surrounding high-voltage transmission lines. Same EMF arguments there, but they've been around longer so it is easier to read up on.

It reminds me of the question surrounding B9 (folic acid). So they found that people who took folic acid were less likely to develop colon cancer. Great! So the researchers ask patients who were in remission to take extra folic acid. Guess what happened? The cancer came back with a vengeance. Turns out, the same mechanism which helped block the cancers from originally developing, makes the cancer go like gang busters once established.

Is EMF harmful? We don't know. Is avoiding EMF helpful? We don't know. In my opinion, the reasonable approach is to treat it like a coal mine and let the early adopters be your canary. If they start dropping, get the heck out, but don't worry about it until then.