* Schools offered cash to put 'health risk' masts on site - Cancer clusters spark call for inquiry into telecoms bonanza (1/8/02)

Tramès per Klaus Rudolph (Citizens' Initiative Omega)

Mark Townsend

Sunday July 28, 2002

The Observer
http://www.observer.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,6903,764389,00.html

Schools and hospitals in Britain are making millions of pounds from deals to site mobile phone masts on their premises despite health concerns. More than 1,000 schools and hospitals have accepted offers from telecom companies averaging £10,000 to house masts and antennae on their premises. The moves come as campaigners claimed they have identified 15 cancer clusters among people living close to the masts. In the largest study of its kind, campaigners collated their findings from a national database started in January and used special meters that detect microwave emissions from nearby masts. Although there is no direct evidence linking microwave radiation from masts to ill health, the findings yesterday ignited calls for a fresh inquiry into the "biological effects" of mobile phone masts. More than 14,000 new masts will be sited in the UK during the next 18 months - on top of the existing 26,000 - as the industry gears up for a new generation of mobile phones.

Phil Willis, Liberal Democrat MP, chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on mobile telecommunications, said: 'When you examine some of these clusters there are patterns that clearly give credence to the biological effects being looked at in association with these stations. 'New research into the effects on the biological make-up and evidence from certain professors around the world appears to show there is a case to answer. Yet the Government is refusing to take these health concerns seriously. Are these clusters coincidence? We need new independent research into this.'

Pressure groups Mast Action UK and Mast Sanity gathered the research using complaints from residents living near mobile phone masts who reported a high incidence of cancer and other adverse health effects. They used a meter, called acousticCOM and due to be officially launched next month, which emits bleeping noises when it detects any high levels of microwaves within homes and gardens. The clusters include one at Crediton, near Exeter, where residents reported four cancers and three leukaemias within 300 metres of a mast. Another at Gainsborough, Lincolnshire, involves four brain haemorrhages - three among next-door neighbours - in residents living within 100m of a mast. The latest cluster to be identified by the group is at Milford Haven, Wales, where six people have been diagnosed with cancer since a mast was put up. Terry and Trisha Thomson live in the heart of one identified cluster at Tolworth, Surrey. Their family home is sandwiched between two masts, one at a hospital, the other on the roof of an office block. Trishawas diagnosed with skin cancer three years ago, her 49-year-old husband has throat cancer while their 13-year-old daughter has complained of a rash. Terry said: 'We want to see a set minimum distance introduced for masts to be sited away from residential areas. The meter gives off a deafening reading when we use it in the back garden or the front of the house. We just cannot escape,' he added. Other complaints recorded by campaigners in the neighbourhood include breast, bowel and lymph cancers.

However, the telecoms industry say they are safe, pointing to a range of studies that have failed to find a link between cancer, microwaves and the masts. The Government's independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones report found no evidence to suggest a health risk from the siting of installations.

In addition, the National Radiological Protection Board measured the radiation levels at 118 locations around 17 mast sites near schools and offices and found no danger. Even experts concerned about a possible link, warn that there are already so many masts in the UK that proving a link is becoming increasingly problematic.
A spokesman for telecoms company O2 UK said: 'For some schools this is a lucrative business; whatever they can pull in is good for them.'

To this problem see the famous documentation by Dr. Neill Cherry at
http://www.buergerwelle.de/d/doc/gesund/cherry/cherry%20english.htm

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