Did a Substation Wreck the 49ers? The Dose Is 40x Too Low, and the Data Says No
The conspiracy theory that electromagnetic radiation from a substation caused the 49ers' injury wave gets dismantled point by point by radiation experts and injury databases: the dose is far below the safety threshold, the cited papers don't hold up, the 2014 expansion was a different substation, and the data doesn't show the 49ers are the worst off.
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The man who blamed the substation writes router firmware for a living
Bay Area resident Peter Cowan heard former 49ers player John Feliciano on the radio half-jokingly blame the team's injuries on the ‘power station’ next to the practice facility, and he couldn't let it go. Earlier in his career he wrote Wi-Fi router firmware for a wireless networking company, and he had once suspected electromagnetic waves himself after developing symptoms like panic and insomnia. Using a gauss meter on site he measured readings of 8.5-9 milligauss, and near one feeder line he even measured 50 milligauss. From that he built a causal chain — electromagnetic waves to oxidative stress to weakened collagen to tendon ruptures — and posted it on X, where it went viral.
— Wendy Zuckerman50 milligauss is still 40 times below anything dangerous
Ken Karipidis, an expert at Australia's radiation protection agency, explains that the extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields emitted by substations and household appliances induce weak currents in the body, but an ambient level of 50 milligauss is far below the public exposure limit of 2000 milligauss. The safety limit itself carries a large margin: you need to get above 50000 milligauss before the retina can be stimulated into seeing ‘stars’, and into the hundreds of thousands of milligauss before nerve twitching becomes possible. At this dose level, Ken says, there is nothing to worry about.
— Ken KaripidisThe two papers he cites don't even qualify as a hypothesis
Neither of the two human studies Peter cites survives scrutiny. An Indian study on ‘oxidative stress in substation workers’ used job titles as a substitute for actual exposure doses, and its numbers don't add up: the abstract says 142 people, the tables contain only 130, and the sample actually tested for oxidative stress drops to 117. The other compared power plant workers with hospital administrative staff and concluded that depression and burnout were associated with electromagnetic fields, without ruling out confounders like shift schedules and job stress at all. Ken's verdict: papers like these shouldn't even be used as a hypothesis.
— Ken KaripidisChildhood leukemia: roughly 6 cases out of 13 million
The claim repeated online that ‘the WHO classified electromagnetic waves as a possible carcinogen’ is true, but that was the International Agency for Research on Cancer's classification more than two decades ago. Scientists then ran a large body of research worldwide and found the association between electromagnetic fields and childhood leukemia is weak and unstable, estimated to account for 1-4% of cases; German researchers made a rough estimate that out of 13 million children, perhaps about 6 cases are related. The research found no association between electromagnetic fields and adult leukemia or other cancers.
— Wendy ZuckermanThe substation expanded in 2014 is the one a mile away
The widely circulated claim that ‘injuries began exploding after the substation was expanded in 2014’ rests on a fundamental error. In Silicon Valley Power's documents, the production team found that what was expanded in 2014 was a substation called Mission Substation, about a mile from the stadium — not the one immediately adjacent to Levi's Stadium and the practice facility (Northern Receiving Station). The load curves in the presentation deck also show no obvious inflection point in 2014. Peter himself later admitted he got one thing wrong.
— RoseThe 49ers do not have the most injuries in the league
Zach Binney, who runs FTN Fantasy's injury database, went through NFL injury reports going back to 2007 and found that by number of players injured, the 49ers are only slightly above average, not the highest; by games lost to injury, the Giants rank first over the past decade and the 49ers second. Only when you narrow the metric to games lost by starters or key players do the 49ers barely come out ‘worst’, and not by much. That is a long way from the narrative that they are far beyond the rest of the league.
— Zachary BinnieIt looks more like three straight practice days, plus bad luck
Even after adjusting the metric, confounding variables remain buried in the statistics: at 2025 training camp the team stuck to ‘three consecutive high-intensity practice days’, which head coach Kyle Shanahan has since changed to two; beyond that, there is pure randomness. Psychologists call it a ‘deep story’ — people need a single target to blame in order to feel better, but the data doesn't support this narrative. With 32 teams, 16 are destined to be in the bottom half, and injuries may just be fate firing at random.
— Pablo TorreIn their own words · checked verbatim
I wouldn't be using this study even as a hypothesis, okay.
Ken Karipidis34:31
Maybe your job just sucks.
Pablo Torre36:21
Researchers don't see a connection between electromagnetic fields and any other type of cancer, by the way, not even adult leukemia, they have looked, and they cannot find a link here.
Wendy Zuckerman45:00
They're a little bit above average.But they actually don't have the most players.
Zachary Binnie53:58
The 32 teams.16 of them.Im gonna be at the bottom half.That's just stats, right.
Zachary Binnie59:19
Figures
| Public exposure limit | 2000 milligauss | 26:19 |
| Dose that triggers retinal stimulation | above 50000 milligauss | 30:00 |
| Share of childhood leukemia electromagnetic fields might explain | 1-4% | 45:00 |
| Ranking by games lost to injury | Giants first, 49ers second | 53:58 |
| 49ers players currently injured | about 20 (of a 90-man roster) | 4:18 |
Glossary
- milligauss
- A unit of magnetic field strength; 1 milligauss = 0.1 microtesla, used to measure exposure to extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields.
- deep story
- A collective narrative that is emotionally persuasive but not necessarily true, helping people attribute a complex phenomenon to a single target.
How to listen
NFL fans, sports data analysts, team strength and health staff, and anyone bothered by anxiety about "substation radiation".
The first 9 minutes of opening banter and ads can be fast-forwarded; starting at 9:00 with the measurement readings is tighter.