Residents health fears over monster mast

From the Stourbridge News, first published Thursday 12th Jun 2008.

PEOPLE in Kingswinford are living in fear of mobile phone masts which they believe could be killing them.

Campaigners say the eyesore, on the High Acres estate, maybe causing a cancer hotspot in the area after a series of cases - including four deaths - in a small cul-de-sac just yards from the site.

Shocking survey results from watchdog OFCOM, which tested the area on May 28, revealed levels of radiation significantly higher than any other English site surveyed this year.

The site is in the middle of Dudley Council-owned playing fields near Gower Road and some householders are so worried they are keeping their children and grandchildren away from the open space.

Campaign spokesperson Wendy Baggott, who lives in Bartic Avenue, said: "We have counted 18 antennae and eight dishes, the wellbeing of the whole community is being affected.

"We are being left here to fry."

Campaigners say they know of at least other six cancer deaths from streets close to the disused water tower, which provides a platform for transmitters owned by Orange, O2, Vodafone and T-Mobile.

Although the OFCOM results show radio waves from the site are within UK safety guidelines, anti-mast protestors say residents are right to worry because British limits are higher than many other countries.

Yasmin Skelt, from national pressure group Mast Sanity, said: "The government keeps refusing to believe there is a problem, China and Russia realise this and keep their limits at one 60th of what we have got.

"We are being told nothing about the health effects, agencies that should be helping the British public are not helping. Why are we putting up with it?"

The government backed Stewart report, released in 2000, found no definite links between masts and illness but recommended caution while more research is carried out.

The report also said phone companies should notify local authorities of installations and the details should be available to the public.

The Kingswinford campaigners - who have formed an action group called The High Acres Base Station Mast Action Group - say despite two years of investigations they still have not received proper answers from Dudley Council about what is attached to the tower.

Wendy Baggott said: "Residents feel the local authority has let us down by not giving us information about the equipment, we just want rid of it."

OFCOM's survey of streets around the controversial Kingswinford mast tower show residents are living in a radiation hotspot.

The telecom watchdog regularly audits areas of concern, producing a detailed report of radio waves using high-tech measuring and GPS equipment at a range of locations.

Results are recorded as a fraction of the maximum permitted UK level under the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) guidelines.

Results are presented as fractions of the permitted maximum, with the highest reading from the survey given as a headline figure.

Most surveys produce a headline figure in millionths or billionths of the maximum, for instance results taken from a site at Bolton Community College in Lancashire measure one in 9,2135,915.

The the High Acres survey's headline figure is one in 5,159 of the maximum guideline reference level for public exposure - considerably higher than any other 2008 survey in England.

In 2000 Sir William Stewart published a major report on health and mobile phone technology which was welcomed by the government.

In his report Sir William said: "We conclude it is not possible to say at present that exposure to RF radiation, even at levels below national guidelines, is totally without adverse health effects."

The report also recommended banning automatic permission for masts under 15 metres and all new base stations should be subject to the normal planning process

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