{"id":681751,"date":"2026-01-16T12:46:20","date_gmt":"2026-01-16T12:46:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/681751\/"},"modified":"2026-01-16T12:46:20","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T12:46:20","slug":"is-a-power-plant-really-behind-49ers-injury-woes-experts-weigh-in-on-crackpot-theory-the-mercury-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/681751\/","title":{"rendered":"Is a power plant really behind 49ers\u2019 injury woes? Experts weigh in on \u2018crackpot\u2019 theory \u2013 The Mercury News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The list of players who have ended up on the injured reserve in recent years is so long, so star-studded that the San Francisco 49ers<\/a> faithful have had it.<\/p>\n

They\u2019ve resorted to online conspiracy theories.<\/p>\n

The low-frequency electromagnetic waves produced by a power plant neighboring Levi\u2019s Stadium are apparently to blame for the 49ers\u2019 injury woes, a recent viral social media thread alleges. There is, in fact, some basis to the idea that electromagnetic waves can affect the human body, explained\u00a0Dr. Nirav Pandya<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As a sports orthopedic surgeon at UC San Francisco, he has used them before. To help treat injuries, ranging from rotator cuff tears to bone fractures.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is definitely at least basic science research that suggests electromagnetic fields can potentially help healing,\u201d Pandya said. \u201cUnless you\u2019re sitting in a lab and overexposing yourself, the (idea) that it would be detrimental and affect an entire team would be pretty remarkable.\u201d<\/p>\n

That is, however, precisely the premise of an idea that has taken hold among fans \u2014 and some players \u2014 of one of the NFL\u2019s most injury-riddled teams.<\/p>\n

After George Kittle became the latest 49ers star to see his season ended by injury, tearing his Achilles in their wild-card round win at Philadelphia, a post on the social media site X<\/a> tying the team\u2019s injury woes to a \u201cmassive electrical substation\u201d next to their stadium and practice fields gained traction. It echoed a post from another user<\/a> in October that was quickly shot down.<\/p>\n

As of this writing, the post by Peter Cowan, a wellness entrepreneur with about 6,000 followers and a Substack blog, had been seen by 22 million users, garnered 35,000 likes and been reposted more than 5,800 times. He previously used the profile mostly to promote his app that hails the healing properties of sunlight.<\/p>\n

\"WorkersWorkers put up a sign for the Super Bowl at Levi\u2019s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., on Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. (Shae Hammond\/Bay Area News Group)\u00a0<\/p>\n

The theory, which claims \u201clow-frequency electromagnetic fields can degrade collagen, weaken tendons, and cause soft-tissue damage,\u201d has spread as far as the Niners locker room. Wide receiver Kendrick Bourne quipped recently, \u201cYeah, it\u2019s that power plant,\u201d when he was asked about the toll of the team\u2019s trouble staying healthy.<\/p>\n

What \u201cscares\u201d Dr. Michael Hoff<\/a> isn\u2019t whether Cowan is right or wrong, he said, \u201cI think crazy theories are fine. \u2026 But like, the fact that the rest of the world kind of goes, \u2018Oh, maybe that\u2019s true.\u2019 That\u2019s a scary thing. But that\u2019s more about the internet.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the director of diagnostic medical physics in UCSF\u2019s radiology department, Hoff called the idea \u201cvery, very crackpot\u201d but he added, \u201cThat\u2019s not to say something that hasn\u2019t been proven doesn\u2019t exist.\u201d<\/p>\n

Huff identified two \u201chuge jumps\u201d Cowan makes in his claim.<\/p>\n

First, he questioned Cowan\u2019s method of measurement. The earth\u2019s magnetic field ranges from 250-650 milligauss (mG). Cowan uses a device that recorded\u00a0a reading of around 8.5-9.0 mG above normal from the perimeter of the Niners practice facility, a hundred yards or so from the power plant. That amounts to a \u201ctiny, tiny little extra amount of magnetic field,\u201d Hoff said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSecond of all, even if you multiplied it by a million and centered it in Levi\u2019s Stadium, would it even damage tissue? There\u2019s no evidence of that, either.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the World Health Organization<\/a>, \u201cmost scientists and clinicians agree that any health effects of low-level electromagnetic fields, if they exist at all, are likely to be very small compared to other health risks that people face in everyday life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dr. Joel Moskowitz<\/a>, a UC Berkeley researcher who serves on the International Commission on the Biological Effects of Electromagnetic Fields, acknowledged that the theory laid out by Cowan is \u201cnot the most likely risk factor\u201d to the 49ers\u2019 injuries but wasn\u2019t willing to write it off.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe there is some credence to this theory,\u201d he said. \u201cConventional wisdom is that none of this stuff can harm you, but that\u2019s just BS in my point of view.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the EPA states \u201cscientific studies have not consistently shown whether exposure to any source of EMF increases cancer risk,\u201d Moskowitz cited a study that found increased leukemia risk in children at exposures as low as 4.0 mG and pointed to a meta-analysis of 345 studies since 1990<\/a> that found \u201csignificant adverse effects from exposure to \u2026 extremely low frequency and static electromagnetic fields.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most of the work, however, pertains to cancer risk. There is less evidence to back up Cowan\u2019s claim that \u201cthe magnetic fields pouring out of the substation \u2026 trigger a multi-pathway assault on collagen,\u201d weakening tendons and soft tissue.<\/p>\n

Injury data does back up what we\u2019ve seen with our own eyes: The Niners have been one of the least-healthy teams in the NFL. According to Sports Info Solutions\u2019 analysis<\/a>, only the Cardinals and Commanders were more impacted by injuries this season. Dating back to 2016, the year before Kyle Shanahan was hired as head coach, the 49ers\u2019 1,970 cumulative games lost on IR are the most in the NFL, according to analysis TruMedia conducted for SFGate<\/a>.<\/p>\n

However, when San Francisco made the Super Bowl in 2023-24, it was one of the league\u2019s healthiest teams. And some of the team\u2019s most serious losses, whether it be Fred Warner\u2019s broken ankle or Brock Purdy\u2019s turf toe, \u201chave nothing to do with collagen or soft tissue,\u201d Pandya, the orthopedic surgeon, said. \u201cIt\u2019s football. It\u2019s violent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Shanahan\u2019s smash-mouth style on offense \u2014 and a defense focused on reacting and tackling at maximum effort \u2014 is one reason some have speculated could lead to injury. Players themselves cited turf issues<\/a> at New Jersey\u2019s MetLife Stadium for a game that saw two 49ers tear their ACLs. San Francisco ranked eighth overall out of 32 teams\u00a0on the NFL Players\u2019 Association\u2019s latest satisfaction survey<\/a>, but its training room and training staff received the worst marks, both among the bottom third in the league.<\/p>\n

The substation, which is owned and operated by Silicon Valley Power, has been there since 1986, three years before the team moved its headquarters and practice facility to the same site. The city considered moving the power plant when Levi\u2019s Stadium was constructed but opted only to reconfigure it at the same location.<\/p>\n

Former 49ers Jon Feliciano and Taybor Pepper have said the nearby substation had been a topic of discussion in the locker room long before Cowan\u2019s post on Jan. 6, and Bourne made it clear that the current group has at least seen the recent discourse online. The Washington Post<\/a> surveyed about two dozen NFL agents this week, roughly one-third of whom reported hearing concerns from their clients about the power plant.<\/p>\n

With an NFC divisional playoff showdown set for Saturday in Seattle, the 49ers will be without Kittle, All-Pro defensive end Nick Bosa and in all likelihood Warner, in addition to a handful of other onetime starters. At least wide receiver Ricky Pearsall, who missed last week\u2019s game with a nagging PCL strain, is trending toward returning<\/a> against the Seahawks.<\/p>\n

As for the unlikely explanation for why the 49ers will be so undermanned, the organization declined to weigh in. The City of Santa Clara, which owns Silicon Valley Power, did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just so hard to make the argument that this is the sole reason why they have more injuries,\u201d Pandya said of the substation theory. \u201cParticularly when there\u2019s not even basic science data that suggests that this level of exposure could cause it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The list of players who have ended up on the injured reserve in recent years is so long,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":681752,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2080],"tags":[220,1926,1443,7,1921,929,6,1161,252,2624,2623,7910,1929,1930,9],"class_list":{"0":"post-681751","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-francisco-49ers","8":"tag-49ers","9":"tag-bay-area","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-football","12":"tag-inside-sports","13":"tag-latest-headlines","14":"tag-nfl","15":"tag-san-francisco","16":"tag-san-francisco-49ers","17":"tag-sanfrancisco","18":"tag-sanfrancisco49ers","19":"tag-santa-clara","20":"tag-santa-clara-county","21":"tag-south-bay","22":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/115904853378184669","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681751","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=681751"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681751\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681752"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681751"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681751"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681751"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}