Meath residents gathered in Trim last night to voice concerns over EirGrid's plan to run a 400kV power line from Woodlands near Batterstown to Kingscourt, Co Cavan.
Members of the campaign group Meath Pylon Pressure (MPP) said they feared the health effects of electro-magnetic radiation on people - particularly children - in homes and schools along the 58km route of the line.
Speaking in advance of the meeting yesterday, the campaign group said concerns centred around British studies which indicate there may be serious adverse health impacts on those living within 600m of power lines. EirGrid is planning a minimum safety distance of just 50m.
The group's spokesman, Francis Lally, said: "There are thousands of people who will be affected. Our key concern here is the health risk, but the pylons will also blight the landscape and devalue homes and property.
"Our solution is straightforward; by all means install new power lines, just put them underground."
He cited another British study, the Draper Report of 2004, which found that children living within 200m of a power line were 69 per cent more likely to develop leukaemia, and those living between 200m and 600m away had a 23 per cent increased risk.
Prof Mike O'Carroll, an emeritus professor at Sunderland University and chair of the UK organisation Rural England Versus Overhead Line Transmission (Revolt), also addressed the meeting.
However, EirGrid, which is responsible for power distribution through the State's electricity grid, said it was planning the lines to best-practice standards, including guidance from the World Health Organisation.
A spokesman for EirGrid said more than €400 million had been spent internationally by various bodies on research into electromagnetic radiation, and EirGrid's plans were in line with the guidance which flowed from that research.
He said they were opposed to putting the line underground for a number of reasons - including cost - but he emphasised that cost was not the only consideration.
"The line is required to be secure, reliable and economic, but if a fault develops in an underground cable, it is first of all much more difficult to find, and then much more difficult to fix."
EirGrid, which is hosting a number of information days in Meath and Cavan about the power lines, will not lodge a planning application until February.
