Almost Fried,
I also know personally of a lot of HV line-workers that retired fit and well, some in thier 60's.
I'm an ex-Live-line worker and I only got out of it because of better oppurtunities in another field.
I'd go back to it again, should I have to, I really can't see where half of these scare-tactics come from, HV is not dangerous to those that work with it day-in, day out.
As Reno said above, when people start making un-calculated guesses, that's when things start to go wrong.
To work on a 66kV circuit live, takes a LOT of forward planning, planning during the job at hand and a de-brief afterwards.
Being silly during a job like that, will often end somebodies life.
We are all professionals, hence we were all subject to regular tests for cancers and the like, our health was monitored.
Personally I think that the biggest risk was from all the X-rays we had to have done.
