Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Tettra & The 17.6 Hz Signal (Is It Mind Control?)

From: Marcel <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2003 05:05:06 -0400

Tettra & The 17.6 Hz Signal
http://www.starweave.com/postie/

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O2

6 November, 2002

Airwave Service

Lustleigh, Newton Abbot
TQ13

Dear

Over the past few months there has been much local media interest and growing public anxiety about the health implications of the new Airwave communications system for Devon & Cornwall Constabulary, and the TETRA standard it uses.

As a community representative, I feel it is important that you should be aware of the very latest scientific advice about Airwave and the Company's position on health & safety.

About Airwave

Airwave is a new integrated state of the art digital mobile radio communications service for the police, and potentially for the other emergency services, which is being introduced nationwide. The purpose of the service is to help improve the safety of the public and the communities in which they live, and the safety of individual police officers.

The system is already used by over 10,000 police officers across the country and is providing benefits ranging from far better radio coverage to encryption to ensure that criminals cannot listen in to police messages. The National Audit Office has estimated that the introduction of Airwave nationwide will be equivalent to putting an additional 1,200 police officers on the beat.

Devon & Cornwall Constabulary is due to go live with the new service next year. However, public concern about the safety of the transmitters that are needed to operate the service has caused severe delays in the planning process and now threatens our ability to provide the necessary infrastructure to allow the Police to operate the system.

Airwave works in much the same way as a commercial mobile phone network. It requires transmitters, normally placed on masts or similar structures, to provide radio coverage in relatively small geographic areas. However, unlike a commercial network, the requirements of the police, and potentially other emergency services, means that it is important that nearly full geographical coverage is provided, even in the remoter rural areas. This means that Airwave often needs to place transmitters in areas where there are none at present although, wherever possible, we do try to utilise existing masts or structures.

The Communications Manager
Airwave mm02 Ltd
Airwave Centre
P 0 Box 999
Rugby
Warwickshire CV23 OZF

Airwave mmO2 Ltd
Registered Office Wellington Street, Slough, Berkshire SL1 1YP

Radio Frequency Emissions

It is generally recognised that radio frequency emissions can be harmful to health above certain exposure levels. Airwave is therefore very aware of its responsibilities to ensure that staff, customers and the general public are not put at risk from the use of radio equipment.

That is why Airwave is committed to rigorous compliance with strict safety guidelines.

Because of the potential risks from RF emissions there are strict international standards set, outside the UK, by independent scientists who are considered to be the leading experts in this field, drawn from a number of countries. These standards are not set by Government but by the International Commission on Nonlonising Radiation Protection (ICNIRP), which is independent of both industry and government.

As a result of public concern in this country and elsewhere, and because scientific research is still ongoing, ICNIRP have set these standards with very wide safety margins built in to protect the public, users and those who have to maintain radio systems. The standards which apply to exposure of the general public are, quite rightly, the most onerous and are set at least 50 times below the level at which it is believed any adverse health effect might occur.

Current ICNIRP standards allow RF emission levels from transmitters of up to 28 volts per metre. Independent testing of Airwave transmitters has shown that emissions are typically 0. 1 to 0.25 volts per metre at distances of between 50 and 150 metres, and much lower at longer distances. The fact that emissions from our transmitters are hundreds or thousands of times below these stringent safety standards provides us with reassurance we are not placing the public at risk.

As a company, Airwave has a duty to ensure that all our equipment and all our transmitters comply fully with these standards, and we are always happy to allow independent testing and measurement of our equipment by a competent authority to prove that it does, in fact, comply with these standards.

We also believe that standards should be subject to the most rigorous and up to date scientific findings. This is why our parent company, 02, continues to contribute towards the funding of further research by independent scientists into the health effects of RF emissions, and why we keep a very close watch on what the scientific community, our customer the Police, and the general public, are saying about the safety of mobile telephony generally and specifically, the TETRA technology used by Airwave.

Pulsing issues

With the TETRA technology used by Airwave, there is also an additional public concern about the socalled ‘pulsing' effect of our equipment at the 17.6 Hz frequency. Naturally, Airwave has been very concerned to ensure that this is not putting the Police or the public at risk.

Claims have been made by some members of the public, and reported in the media, that Airwave transmitters pulse at this frequency. The origin of concern about this frequency is a reference in the Stewart report into mobile telephony in 2000, which advised precaution in relation to frequencies that were amplitude modulated at around 16 Hz. The concern was these frequencies were close to those in the human brain and that some studies, carried out back in the 1970s, had suggested there might be an effect on brain function.

Airwave too was concerned about this, which is why we have been happy to cooperate with independent testing of our transmitters undertaken by the UK's National Radiological Protection Board and by other independent experts. Their reports demonstrate that Airwave transmitters do not pulse at 17.6Hz but transmit a near continuous signal in the range of 380 to 400 MHz, which is a similar frequency to TV transmissions and nowhere near the frequencies of the human brain.

These tests have shown that there are tiny trace elements of the 17.6Hz frequency in the signals from the transmitter but these are miniscule variations and there is no evidence of pulsing. The attached diagram demonstrates that the 17.6 Hz component of the signal is hundreds of millions of times below the safety standard, even close to the transmitter.

Latest research findings

There is also some very recent, and reassuring, scientific evidence coming to light. For example, Dr Alan Preece of the University of Bristol published research in June, based on trials of TETRA handsets on human volunteers, which found no effect on cognitive brain function. Preliminary results from work on TETRA signals from Dr John Tattershall of the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory similarly show no significant effect.

What the scientific community is telling Airwave is that, on balance, there is no evidence that the special features of the TETRA technology we use is a risk to public health. The scientific community also stresses that the emissions from transmitters are far lower than those from mobile telephones, which are now used by the vast majority of the population (n.b. some 5,000 times lower than those from a mobile phone handset at 50 metres distant from the mast).

Improving public safety

Whilst Airwave is certainly not complacent about the health & safety issues and is committed to listening to all sides of the argument, recent research evidence and the consensus within the scientific community give us great reassurance that we are not putting people's health at risk by rolling this system out nationwide.

We also know that the introduction of Airwave wilt bring significant public. safety benefits throughout the country and help to improve policing in our communities. The system has proved its value in areas where it has already been introduced and I know that Devon & Cornwall Constabulary are looking forward to greatly improved police communications when the service goes live next year.

Hence in your capacity as a key community representative we hope you will be able to support this extremely important project which will deliver real benefits in improving public safety across Devon, Cornwall and Isles of Scilly.

If you would like any further information about the introduction of Airwave in Devon and Cornwall, or if you wish to express your views, do please contact me. Details of various websites that provide further background information on this important subject are shown on the attached page.

Further information

A number of web sites belonging to expert organisations, which deal with the issue of radio frequency emissions, are listed below:

World Health Organisation – www.who.int/peh-emf

International Commission on Nonlonising Radiation Protection – www.icnirp.org

National Radiological Protection Board – www.nrpb.org.uk

Independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones www.iegmp.org.uk

Federation of Electronic industries – www.fei.org.uk

TETRA Memorandum of Understanding – www.tetramou.com

Motorola www.motorola.com/rfhealth

Home Office www.homeoffice.gov.uk/pcrg/tetra.htm

Airwave mm02 Ltd
Registered Office Wellington Street, Slough, Berkshire SL1 1YP