I just moved into an apartment on the second floor. It is extremely
close to either an electric or a phone pole. It's about 20-40 feet
away, and very tall. I'm almost certain that if it fell in the
direction of our apartment, it would hit either us or the people above
us. Before we moved in they would only show us a model, so we didn't
know it was there beforehand.
Is it safe to be that close to a large pole like that?
If not, can we at least get out of our one year contract?
What exactly are those things called, and how do I identify between a
phone one and an electric one.
Thanks so much for the help!

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Request for Question Clarification by larre-ga on 14 Sep 2004 16:05 PDT

Safety would depend on many factors including type and size, but
statistically, power and telephone poles are considered quite safe.

Let's see if we can narrow it down a bit. How tall is the pole? You
might try estimating in terms of your apartment building. How many
stories is the apartment building? How tall is the pole in comparison?

What's the pole made of? Wood, concrete, metal? 

Could it be a tower, rather than a pole? 

How many crossbars does it have? 

Take a look at these images and let us know if anything comes close to 'your' pole.

http://www.photovault.com/Link/Technology/Power/Distribution/TPDVolume01.html

---l

Is it safe to be that close to a large pole like that?
Yes, so long as it is not high voltage.  How do you tell?  Does it
hum?  Is it about the size of 3 fingers togather?  If yes it is
probably high voltage.  If no then it is probably normal residential
power and phone lines.

Can you get out of your 1 year contract?  
Did you specifically ask to see the apartment you would go into
beforehand?  If so then you may be able to make the argument they were
attempting to hide the poles proximity in a court of law.  If not,
then probably no.
I would go back to the Apartment Managment and voice your concerns,
they would probably be willing to let you move to another unit.
If that doesn't work and you think you were swindled in some way you
can always go to your local news channel/paper and tell them your
story(or threaten to do so to the apartment management).  In this day
and age apartment complexes cannot afford bad publicity.

What exactly are those things called, and how do I identify between a
phone one and an electric one.
The easy way is that phone lines are usually small thin lines carrying
only a few pairs of cable.  They may run from the poll to a house or
apartment complex.  They will be wrapped around a harder wire from the
poll to the residence in order not to stress the lines.
If you have these http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/telephone3.htm
in your neighborhood then the phone lines are in the ground.
Look around the outside of your apartment building, you can usually
follow where the phone lines come from the building and run up the
side and then to your poll, they will be marked with the logo of your
phone company.  The power lines will go through tranformers(those
giant flashlight battery looking things at the top of polls)
occasionally(a dead givaway its electric) or will run from poll to
residence.  They look like this
http://science.howstuffworks.com/power.htm (see pic bottom of the
page)

High Voltage lines look like this... http://science.howstuffworks.com/power4.htm