Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Brain damage fears over plan to erect 700 police radio masts

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Mon, 07 Apr 2003 11:59:11 -0400

Sunday Herald - 06 April 2003

Brain damage fears over plan to erect 700 police radio masts

Health and environmental concerns over £2.5bn system
 By Rob Edwards, Environment Editor

Plans to erect 700 police radio transmitters across Scotland are running
into fierce
opposition from local residents and environmental campaigners alarmed
about the
dangers to human health and damage to the landscape.

The mobile phone company O2 wants to install new aerial transmitters in
every
region of the country over the next two years in order to give the
emergency
services a comprehensive new digital communications network. It has
already
submitted 200 planning applications, predominantly in the south of
Scotland.

Between 90 and 100 transmitters are planned in each of seven police
force areas:
Strathclyde, Lothian and Borders, Dumfries and Galloway, Central,
Tayside, Grampian
and Northern. A further 30 have been proposed for Fife, the police force
smallest
area.

O2, which used to be part of BT, says that for at least 40% of the new
transmitters it
will have to erect masts. The company is hoping that the remaining 60%
can be fitted
on existing masts or buildings.

But there are growing fears about the health risks of the new
trans-mitters, which
some experts regard as more dangerous than conventional mobile phone
masts. The
new £2.5 billion system being introduced throughout the UK is known as
Tetra --
Terrestrial Trunked Radio -- and transmits a signal with a frequency of
17.6Hz.

This is very close to the frequency which the government's Indepen dent
Expert
Group on Mobile Phones warned might affect brain activity. In May 2000,
it said: 'As a
precautionary measure, amplitude modulation around 16Hz should be
avoided, if
possible, in future developments.'

Some studies have suggested that radio waves around this frequency could
cause
calcium to leak from the brain and other tissue. This in turn could
trigger damage to
the nervous and immune systems.

According to Gerald Hyland, a biophysicist from the University of
Warwick, the
electromagnetic radiation may also cause mood swings, headaches, sleep
disruption
and short-term memory loss. It could even retard the academic
development of
children.

Some people would be more susceptible than others, he argued. He said,
'Is there an
established potential risk to human health from exposure to Tetra
radiation? The
answer is undoubtedly yes.'

Alison Mackay lives just 200 metres from the site of a proposed new
Tetra radio mast
on Tarvit Hill near Cupar in Fife. She is organising a campaign to
oppose it, and other
masts planned for the area.

'It is a techno-nightmare. This system has not been tried and tested,
which means
that anyone living close to one of these masts will in effect be a human
guinea pig,'
she said.

'O2 should be required to prove conclusively that there will be no
long-term impact
on human health before permission is given for the system to be
installed.' She
accused the company of trying to erect masts with as few people as
possible
knowing about them.

Other local residents are worried that the masts will be an eyesore in
an attractive
landscape. 'We will take the campaign to the Scottish Executive,' Mackay
promised.
'And, if necessary, we will take it to the courts.'

Police officers in England, where the Tetra system has already been
introduced to
10 forces, have complained of ill-health after using the mobile
handsets. According
to one report, more than 170 officers in Lancashire claimed to suffer
from migraines,
sleeplessness and lack of concentration after using the system.

Tetra radio waves could also interfere with life-saving equipment in
hospitals. A
government regulator, the Medical Devices Agency, has warned that the
operation
of heart pacemakers, defibrillators and ventilators could be affected.

An expert group set up by the government's National Radiological
Protection Board
was equivocal about the health risks. It concluded that 'current
evidence suggests
that it is unlikely that the special features of the signals from Tetra
mobile terminals
and repeaters pose a hazard to health'.

But it added: 'Although, when viewed as a whole, the epidemiological
research that
has been carried out does not give cause for concern, it has too many
limitations to
provide assurance that there is no hazard.'

Although the Scottish Executive insisted that it was not complacent
about the risks,
it welcomed Tetra as 'the cutting edge of 21st century technology'.

The system will, a spokeswoman said, 'improve police effectiveness
through a range
of new features available to officers, including greater clarity of
voice
communications, improved security and the potential for officers to be
linked to the
public telephone network'.

O2 also stressed the benefits to police effectiveness and public safety
of the Tetra
system, which it has branded Airwave. 'Airwave aims to secure the level
of service
requested by police forces, whilst taking into account local views and
concerns
about the siting of transmitters,' said a spokeswoman for the company.

'Health and safety issues are very important to us. Science cannot
categorically
prove anything to be absolutely safe, but the World Health Organisation
holds a
database of over 450 studies on the biological effects of radio
frequency emissions
and no risk to health has been demonstrated.'

The company's reassurances were dismissed, however, by a group called
Mast Sanity
which is campaigning across the UK against the Tetra system. 'There has
been no
significant research into the effects of Tetra and it is a totally
unproven system,' said
the group's director, Lisa Oldham.

'It is becoming an increasing problem for many campaign groups in every
corner of
the country as the government tries to force this dangerous system on us
and on
the police.'

http://www.sundayherald.com/32689

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