World-News

A plan to 'plant' a fake 25-metre tall cypress tree disguising a mobile phone mast close to Chichester's most popular walking and cycling route has provoked a wave of protest.

Conservationists, residents and city councillors are queueing up to condemn the scheme, with claims that it will damage the landscape close to Centurion Way, which is used by thousands of people.

One said it would look like a giant loo brush. And some residents living nearby are expressing concerns about possible health risks from the mast.

But the company behind the scheme maintains the mock tree will be 'more visually amenable' than a conventional mast.

Orange is applying to the district council for permission to replace an existing 15m high mast with the 10m higher fake tree mast, on the west side of the way near Warren Farm Lane.

Report in January 25 issue of the Observer

30 January 2007

All rights reserved © 2007 Johnston Press Digital Publishing.

http://www.chichester.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx?SectionID=448&ArticleID=1994193

By Rob Devey

PHONE MAST: Stapleton Avenue, Bolton

RENT from mobile phone masts erected on land and buildings owned by Bolton Council have boosted the Town Hall's bank account by £275,000.

Five of the town's 142 antennae are on local authority property, including a primary school and a leisure centre.

The figures, revealed following a request by The Bolton News, have sparked criticism that the council is putting financial gain ahead the health of the borough's residents.

Cllr Andy Morgan, who last year called for a blanket ban on masts on local authority land, said: "In the scheme of things, £275,000 is not a lot and certainly isn't an amount worth taking a risk for when there is no conclusive proof that masts are not a threat to health.

"I don't think any sum of money could justify taking that risk, especially where children are concerned. In the long run we just don't know what the effects will be on people who come near these things."

The five masts in the borough - at Brandwood Primary School, Daubhill; Horwich Leisure Centre; the Rainford House flats in Haydock Street on the School Hill Estate, Bolton; garages at Duddon Avenue in Breightmet and green belt land at Stapleton Avenue, in Heaton - have generated a total of £275,154 in revenue.

The council has pocketed £238,732 of that amount, with £36,421 in rent paid for a mast at Brandwood Primary School going direct to the school.

The rest of the money has gone into a central revenue pot and has not been earmarked for specific areas, like health or education Mike Chapman, who was headmaster at Brandwood Primary School when the mast was built, in April 1998, said he had taken expert advice at the time and came to the conclusion the mast would not be dangerous.

PHONE MAST: Rainford House, School Hill

The mast at Horwich Leisure Centre was installed in December 1998 and has generated £35,117 in income for Bolton Council.

Since being installed in October 1992, the mast on Rainford House has earned the council £81,624, while the mast in Duddon Avenue has brought in £59,449 and the mast at Stapleton Avenue has recouped £62,542 in rent.

Cllr Morgan said: "When people go to schools and leisure centres they might not be aware of the masts and do not have any choice but to go near them.

"I think as a good local authority and employer we should put the safety of our residents and staff first."

In many cases, residents have launched protests over the erection of mobile phone masts on public land.

Michelle Daubney organised a protest petition after councillors allowed Vodafone to install four, 20-metre high mobile phone antennae at St John the Evangelist Church, in Church Street, Farnworth.

More than 200 parents of pupils signed the petition.

Miss Daubney, of Hesketh Walk, Farnworth, whose five-year-old son, Jack, attends the school, said: "You cannot put a price on a child's health.

"There is no conclusive evidence that these masts are safe so the council shouldn't be taking risks to line their pockets.

"It is irresponsible and if we find out they are unsafe in ten years time it will be too late."

Despite public fears over the risk of radiation from mobile phone masts, scientific evidence suggests that they pose no serious danger to health.

A Bolton Council spokesman said: "All the phone masts in Bolton comply with strict Government guidelines. Various studies have been conducted into the possible health issues that may arise, but the information to date suggests that there is no cause for any concern over public health.

The council's position is backed up by Dr John Stather, of the radiation protection division at the Health Protection Agency, who said there is no cause for concern.

Omega this is not true. See under:
http://omega.twoday.net/topics/Wissenschaft+zu+Mobilfunk/
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=Cancer+Cluster
http://www.buergerwelle.de/science.html

VOTE: Is the council right to allow phone masts to be erected on its land and buildings? Register your vote at the bottom of the Editors Choice panel on the right of this page. http://www.theboltonnews.co.uk/news/

© Copyright 2001-2007 Newsquest Media Group

http://www.thisislancashire.co.uk/news/localnews/display.var.1153454.0.phone_masts_earn_council_275_000.php

Here is an interesting story from Taiwan.

Martin Weatherall


TEPU urges gov't to create strict electromagnetic radiation standards

2007/1/27

The China Post staff

The Taiwan Environmental Protection Union (TEPU) yesterday called for the government to work out strict standards on maximum allowable indoor and outdoor electromagnetic radiation levels to better safeguard local people from exposure to high levels of electromagnetic radiation.

The TEPU made the call in a written statement issued after completing a test of the electromagnetic radiation levels of the National Taiwan University (NTU) campus, together with NTU measurers, and other relevant units including Environmental Protection Administration (EPA), and National Communications Commission (NCC).

The units came out with different test results concerning the electromagnetic radiation levels in the NTU laboratory, with the NTU test showing the lowest level at 9uW/m2, the EPA at 90uW/m2, the TEPU at 330uW/m2, and the NCC at 350uW/m2.

TEPU measurers said they used a simple electromagnetic wave tester to carry out the test, and came out with an electromagnetic wave level similar to that recorded by the NCC, indicating the simple tester can be widely applied to test electromagnetic radiation.

As the government has yet to work out acceptable electromagnetic radiation levels for indoors and outdoors, the EPA should move to draft the standards as soon as possible, and should clarify that the 9uW/m2 level announced earlier is an acceptable outdoor electromagnetic radiation level, TEPU urged in its statement.

In addition, the TEPU said that the government can set indoor electromagnetic radiation levels at under 5uW/m2, as set in the Building Biology Guidelines adopted by Germany.

The government can also take into consideration the outdoor standard radiation level at 10uW/m2 and indoor level at 1uW/m2, as now enforced by Austria's Salzburg county, TEPU suggested.

The TEPU also urged local universities to pay close attention to the electromagnetic radiation situation their students may face when using computers that have wireless Internet connections.

The organization recently released a report which stated that the NTU campus exceeded safe radiation levels based on measurements the group took near a wireless Internet transmitter inside a library.

The wireless Internet transmitter emitted over 1700W per square meter of radiation, far exceeding the 5W per square meter international standard for an indoor space, He said.

NTU officials immediately took their own measurements of the library after the TEPU report but found radiation levels lower than 1W per square meter.

NTU officials challenged TEPU to measure the campus again, this time together with NTU measurers, to "find out the truth."

Both the TEPU and the NTU accused each other of using the wrong unit in their measurements, resulting in such a wide discrepancy.

TEPU also conducted tests on 25 different notebook computers and found fourteen of them to exceed 2,000W per square meter.

The fourteen include brand names such as Asus, Acer, IBM, and Twinhead.

However, the companies all rejected the organization's findings, saying that their products have undergone and subsequently passed tests on radiation emission.

Copyright © 2006 The China Post. All rights reserved.



NCC seeks to calm concerns over electromagnetic radiation
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/news/archives/taiwan/2007130/101256.htm

TEPU, NTU to jointly test campus radiation levels
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/news/archives/taiwan/2007126/100953.htm

http://www.newsday.com/news/health/ny-hstowe045039026jan04,0,1641771.story?coll=ny-health-print


Informant: Mark G.



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=electromagnetic+hypersensitivity
http://omega.twoday.net/search?q=electromagnetic+hypersensitivity

By Gordon Rogers

Another battle is looming over plans for a new mobile phone transmitter mast in Abingdon - two years after residents fought off a similar scheme.

T-Mobile wants planning permission to erect a 15m high telecommunications mast with antennas and two equipment cabinets at Allens Carparts on the Radley Road industrial estate.

Now people living in Galley Fields say they are looking at resurrecting their old campaign.

Two years ago, 02 wanted to build a 15m mast on the same land but the Galley Fields Residents' Association, led by pensioner Ernie Wright, objected. They were backed by Abingdon Town Council and the Vale of White Horse District Council.

Councillors vetoed the mast on the grounds that it would have been visually intrusive and too close to homes. Mr Wright, 78, said: "Just when we thought we had seen off the transmitter mast then another application comes forward.

"Last time the Vale council threw it out and now a different company comes up with the same idea and we will have to go through the whole business again. It doesn't make sense to me. It's bad enough having to put up with one monstrosity of a mast overshadowing us and now we're under threat again."

Martin Smith, who chairs the town council's planning and highways committee, said: "I am surprised to see another application on the same site after we objected most strongly to the first application. We recommended that the Vale should not consider any further applications on this site. A tall mast overlooking nearby homes would be an un-neighbourly development."

A spokesman for the district council's planning department said: "We have to consider all planning applications on their merits, even if a similar proposal has come up before. The same arguments might apply and the eventual outcome could be the same, but we have to go through the process."

A spokesman for T-Mobile was not prepared to comment on individual planning applications for masts but said: "We have submitted an application to the council. We will follow the correct planning procedures and will await the decision of the local authority."

Another phone company wants to build a mast at Kennington. The district council has received an application from Nokia for a 15m telecommunications mast and equipment cabin at the Kennington playing fields pavilion in Playfield Road.

In the past three years, the district council has got tough with telecommunications companies. It refused permission for Orange to erect masts near the Boundary House pub in Oxford Road, Abingdon United's ground in Northcourt Road and a second mast at the Radley Road industrial estate.

© Copyright 2001-2007 Newsquest Media Group

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