Subject: Cellphone tower concern grows in "official" U.K. (Philips)
Date: Sun, 3 Oct 1999 123545 -0500 (CDT)
From: "Roy L. Beavers"
To: emfguru
--------------------------------------------------
.....Alasdair has forwarded two separate messages from the U.K. which
clearly depict the degree to which "officialdom" in the U.K. is
beginning to view the possible health hazards of the "cell towers" with
greater concern and urgency.....
The first message (forwarded below) is actually TWO newspaper reports
which set the stage for what you will see in Alasdair's second message,
a news report about action that is being taken by the Scottish
Parliament's Transport and Environment committee.....
......Be sure you get the tie-in between these two messages....
(Guru has inserted one comment below.)
Cheerio.... (I trust that SOMEONE will ensure that these items get to the
churches which are heavily engaged in similar cases....)
Roy Beavers (EMFguru)......
rbeavers@llion.org.......
.....It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness.....
EMF-L web-site can be found at:
EMF-L archives can be found at:
..................PEOPLE ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN PROFITS..................
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 03 Oct 1999 17:31:54
From: Alasdair Philips
To: "Roy L. Beavers"
Subject: Sunday Times
Two articles from the Sunday Times 3rd October 1999
The second article may only be in the Scottish Edition.
**Health board urges ban on mobile phone masts** Geraldine Murray
EXPERTS from Scotland's largest health board have warned local authorities
against erecting mobile phone masts on schools as fears over links to
cancer and child leukaemia grow.
Greater Glasgow Health Board is recommending a temporary ban on putting
masts on council properties until further scientific research has been
conducted. It also suggests toughening safety limits on radiation emissions
from the masts.
The advice has been given to the six councils in the area covered by the
health board. Glasgow city council, the largest, has already indicated that
it might ignore the recommendations of Dr Helene Irvine, a public health
consultant with the board. East and West Dunbartonshire, East Renfrewshire
and North and South Lanarkshire are all understood to be considering her
recommendations.
Irvine, who has carried out a review of existing research into the
potential effects of radiation from mobile phone masts on humans, says
there is no epidemiological evidence at present to link the transmitter
masts with child leukaemia or cancer.
However, she added: "If there are any effects they will not be known for
some time and I think it's wrong to say that just because we don't have
this kind of evidence at the moment it's all right to put these masts on
schools."
Irvine said that continuing to put up masts would be "reckless" given the
lessons of previous disease epidemics which were eventually proved to be
linked to substances such as tobacco and asbestos.
The public health consultant confirmed that she has met representatives
from all six councils to outline her advice and is expected to send written
copies of the new guidelines. Her recommendations are being backed by Dr
Harry Burns, the board's public health director.
Glasgow city council acknowledged that it had been "in dialogue" with the
health board, but indicated that it might choose to reject the advice to
adopt a precautionary approach.
"Our position is that we've been carrying out our own survey on all the
masts in the city and we are satisfied that any emissions fall well within
recommended parameters. The council has therefore made no decision to ban
masts as, at this time, there is no definitive scientific opinion to
suggest a health problem," said a spokesman.
Glasgow council is thought to earn up to £800,000 a year renting out space
on its properties for masts to be erected.
=======================================================================
Scottish mothers believe mobile phone firms are endangering children, says
Gillian Bowditch
Health issue: Donlan is worried that schoolchildren like her
daughter Joy are exposed to radiation Are phone masts cooking brains?
For most of us, microwave technology is one of the blessings of
20th-century living; an easy way to produce an instant hot meal. But for
Joan Donlon, the technology we take for granted has a sinister side. She is
worried that the increasingly widespread positioning of mobile phone masts
on school grounds and in residential areas could be exposing our children
to unacceptable radiation.
Donlon, from Gourdon in south Aberdeenshire, is one of a growing number of
women from Thurso to Glasgow who are becoming increasingly concerned at the
number of masts in residential areas and who are taking direct action to
have them removed. There are fears that the radiation from the masts could
lead to cancer and brain disorders.
Their tenacity appears to be paying off. This week the transport and
environment committee of the Scottish parliament will start examining
concerns about the growth in mobile phone masts in Scotland and is calling
on the four operators, Mercury, One2One, Orange, Vodafone and BT, to give
evidence.
Nobody, apart from the telephone companies, knows how many masts are
currently in operation in Scotland but the number is believed to be about
2,000. There is no central reg-ister and because planning permission is not
required for masts less than 15-metres tall, many local authorities have no
accurate records.
Donlon, 38, first became concerned a year ago when the local community
council sent around a notice informing residents that Vodafone was planning
to site a mast almost 15- metres high in the grounds of the local primary
school where her 11-year-old daughter Joy is a pupil.
"It was the first time I'd heard about it," Donlon says. "The note gave a
brief outline of the possible health concerns and I wasn't happy about it.
The more I read about it, the more worried I became. I was like a terrier
with a bone. I simply wasn't prepared to let the issue go." She was
concerned about anecdotal evidence that questioned the long-term health
effects of constant exposure to microwave radiation. The mast, however, was
erected.
With the help of Friends of the Earth, Donlon mobilised her community. Her
local councillor became involved and a petition was signed by most of the
local residents, including many of the parents of the 60 pupils at Gourdon
Primary School. "I contacted Vodafone and initially they were not
interested. I think they thought I would just disappear," she says. But
once her local MP, Sir Robert Smith, joined her crusade and she received
publicity in the local papers and on Grampian Television, the company
backed down. At a press conference that she called on March 5, she heard
that Vodafone was withdrawing its mast.
"I was delighted and completely taken by surprise," says Donlon, who also
has a 14-year-old son. "I thought it would be a long campaign." Vodafone
cited visual impact as the reason for the withdrawal.
In Thurso, Jean Hannah and her daughter Jill are fighting a similar battle
with Orange for the removal of a mast from the edge of an all-weather
sports pitch used by local children and youth groups. The pitch is in a
residential area and Orange successfully applied to Caithness council to
remove one of the pitch floodlights and replace it with a mast.
Hannah says the decision to site the mast went ahead despite local
opposition. "We had two petitions and gathered around 300 signatures
calling for the mast's removal. Our attitude is that nobody knows what the
long-term effect of living with these masts is. There may be nothing to
worry about, but there could be a great deal to worry about and until we
know these masts should be kept away from residential areas. The people who
live beside them have no choice. They are exposed to the radiation 24
hours a day." Hannah has met with Orange, which is looking at the
possibility of moving the mast, but for now it remains close to the houses
and the sports pitch.
Graeme McAlister, a researcher with Friends of the Earth, says the issue is
becoming more urgent because telecommunications companies are under
pressure to ensure their phones can be used in 90% of the country before
the end of the year to fulfil the terms of their government licences.
In some built-up areas masts are needed every 400 metres to ensure a
signal, he says, and because schools have traditionally been built on
elevated sites in the middle of residential areas, the phone companies are
keen to site masts on them.
"We are seeing them on schools, office blocks and high-rise flats.
Increasingly churches are being asked to erect them on their steeples,"
McAlister says. "Some schools now have a couple of masts on them and as
they can be paid up to £8,000 in rental fees by the telephone companies, a
school with two masts can generate almost enough income to pay for an
additional teacher."
McAlister admits that there is no hard scientific evidence to suggest the
masts damage health, and he can give no examples of Scots who have been
proven to have suffered health problems as a result of living near them,
but he says the effects of low-level radiation could take 20-30 years to
become apparent.
He says there are two recognised biological effects of exposure to the
masts: the thermal heating effect, whereby body temperature rises as a
result of exposure to the radiation, and the non-thermal effect of
low-level radiation. There is speculation that over a long period the
low-level effect could damage the immune system.
"If you speak to the National Radiological Protection Board, the
government-funded advisory body, they will tell you there is no firm
evidence on the possible risk to health. The phone companies say there is
no conclusive evidence. What they cannot say is that there is no evidence.
We would like to see more research done."
McAlister says other countries, notably Italy and Switzerland, are taking
the issue seriously. "In New South Wales there is now a 500-metre exclusion
zone around schools and playing fields, where it is illegal to site these
masts," he says. "We are not calling for that, nor do we want to see them
disappear altogether. We are aware that mobile phones are here to stay. We
would, however, like to see them sited more than 200 metres from
residential areas. We'd also like all local authorities to keep accurate
records of where the masts are, and we would like to see the companies
have access to each other's masts. Rather than four sets of masts covering
the country, there need be only one. This is how it works in other
countries.
"The government will soon allocate five new mobile phone licences which
should raise £2.5 billion for the exchequer. It is anticipated that the
four existing operators will receive one each. This is the ideal time for
action to be taken, before these licences are granted."
But Dr Michael Clark, scientific spokesman with the National Radiological
Protection Board,says: "There is no evidence in the published scientific
and epidemiological journals to suggest there is any health risk from the
masts. This is also the position of the World Health Organisation.
[....Before accepting the word of this eminent "authority" of the NRPB, I
hope someone will refer to the substantial published work of Dr. John
Goldsmith of Israel and Dr. Neil Cherry of New Zealand. Too often
statemnt's (like Michael Clark's) are made by "authorities" who may not
bw aware of the considerable amount of work that is being done OUTSIDE of
the U.K. ... or the U.S. Surely Michael Clark would not say that such
research "doesn't count" because it is not done in Britain???.....guru...]
"Whether councils should take precautionary measures and site the masts
outside of residential areas is essentially a political decision. Our job
is to give advice based on the scientific evidence. Nobody can ever give a
100% guarantee that there is no health risk whatsoever but there has been a
good deal of mis-reporting and scaremongering."
In many regards, Scotland is leading the way in highlighting the concerns.
Fourteen of its 32 councils have adopted precautionary measures to prevent
further erection of masts in residential areas and an independent expert
group has been established under the chairmanship of Sir William Stewart of
Tayside University Hospitals NHS Trust to assess the medical risks of the
masts and to decide on what further research needs to be done. It is
seeking comments from members of the public and will report in a year's time.
At a conference in Edinburgh next month Dr Helene Irvine of the Greater
Glasgow Health Board, who has assessed all the existing research, will
discuss her findings. She believes that until we know the long-term
consequences of low-intensity microwave radiation, masts should not be
sited in residential areas.
Nick Johnston, MSP for Mid-Scotland and Fife has lodged a motion with the
Scottish parliament demanding that all mobile phone masts are brought
within the control of local planning authorities. But because
telecommunications is a reserved matter and dealt with by Westminster,
there is little the Scottish parliament can do to force the phone companies
to change their policy. It can, however, tackle the matter from a planning
point of view and could force local authorities to take health
considerations into account when considering planning applications.
With an estimated 20m mobile phones users, the masts are here to stay but
for people such as Donlon and Hannah they are too close for comfort.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Alasdair Philips, BSc(Eng), DAgE, MIAgE
Director, UK Powerwatch, (aphilips@gn.apc.org)
EMC Engineer and EMF-bioeffects researcher
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Archive provided courtesy of WaveGuide, http://www.wave-guide.org
Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.emfguru.com