Marlborough and the mast...
NEWS RELEASE... From the office of the Green MEPs ~ 29 March, 2003
GREEN MEPs LEAD CALL FOR TETRA MAST SAFETY BAN
GREEN EURO-MPs have called for an EU-wide ban on building 'TETRA' masts for police communications until fears over the safety of their radiation emissions have been answered.
In a written declaration to be considered by all MEPs, Greens have called for an immediate moratorium on the masts in light of increasing anecdotal evidence the masts pose a radiation risk, especially to children.
"We are asking for an immediate halt to TETRA mast construction, right across the EU, and urgent research to plug the gaps in our knowledge of the effect of TETRA on human health, especially that of children," said Jean Lambert, Green Party MEP for London.
"Reports of TETRA being responsible for tumours, leukaemia, motor neurone disease and other cancers must be taken seriously until we know with certainty whether or not the masts are to blame. With risks like these, the precautionary principle must apply."
South-East England's Green Party Euro-MP Caroline Lucas added: "Residents' fears over the safety of TETRA masts have been heightened by the fact that 170 police officers using TETRA handsets in a Lancashire trial of the system have fallen ill, with symptoms ranging from migraine, burning sensations, sleeplessness to a lack of concentration.
"People's concerns about the masts supplying these handsets are real and legitimate and must be allayed before further masts are built, not after another public health scare erupts."
The TETRA (Terrestrial Trunked Radio) system is being rolled out nationwide by O2 to provide a new national police radio network. Altogether 3,000 masts are planned.
Trials of the system in North Yorkshire and Lancashire have seen officers reporting a wide range of serious medical side effects after using the handsets, which pulse at a frequency that a 2002 independent investigation into mobile phones and health (The Stewart Inquiry) said should be avoided.
The Home Office has claimed the Stewart report's findings do not apply to TETRA, citing further research by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), which linked Stewart's concerns with the movement of calcium between cells in the heart and brain. Based on DSTL's findings, the Home Office says TETRA has no effect on such calcium movements, but the DSTL research has been widely criticised. Low-level radiation expert Chris Busby believes that the research is flawed.
Dr Busby said that the study failed to control variables such as temperature and natural background static fields that could affect the results.
Dr Gerard Hyland, a Warwick university physicist, has pointed out that only the heating effect of radiation from TETRA has been investigated. He has proposed that this radiation pulses at frequencies that may affect the operation of the human body and should be taken into account.
Mrs Lambert, a member of the European Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee, said: "The trials and the scientists' warnings have concentrated on the handsets rather than the TETRA masts, but they raise serious questions over the safety of the system as a whole."
Dr Lucas, who serves on the parliament's Environment Committee, added: "Clearly far more investigation is needed before we commit ourselves, and our children, to exposure from these masts by allowing them to be built across the region, especially in residential areas and near schools, hospitals and offices.
"The precautionary principle places the onus on TETRA's advocates to demonstrate the radiation emitted from the masts is safe before the system is switched on, not after the ill-effects are being felt."
ENDS Editors' Note: Copies of the Written Declaration, which opened for signature in the European Parliament today, are available on request.
For more information please contact Ben Duncan on 020 7407 6280, 07973 823358 or press@greenmeps.org.uk