Masts: 'It's not rerassuring'
SIR - I must thank Mr Michael Dolan for his letter (Gazette, August 29) in which he seeks to reassure us that mobile phone masts are not harmful.
I am well acquainted with Sir William Stewart's report, from which the important statement emerged that the erection of mobile phone masts should only proceed "with caution." The report also revealed that children are 50 per cent more likely than adults to suffer from the effects of masts and mobile phones and Sir William stated that he would not allow his grandchildren to use mobile phones.
Does Mr Dolan call "extremely reassuring" the fact that mobile phone masts are being erected in built-up areas all over the country, despite carefully considered refusals by district councils (invariably overturned on appeal)?
The world's experts originally thought that radiation from mobile phone masts was too low to be harmful. Today this view is becoming increasingly untenable in the light of new evidence.
Also, are we to ignore the high clusters of leukaemia and cancer cases around certain masts, of which there is plenty of evidence? This was all taken into account by the Torridge District Council when they refused permission for the St Mary's mast.
The telecom companies will want these masts, to service the two billion mobile phones worldwide - but, as the Swedish neurosurgeon Dr Leif Salford said, "This is the largest human biological experiment ever to be undertaken, because this technology has been marketed without any safety testing whatsoever," - an incredibly bizarre omission in these days of Health and Safety legislation.
New evidence from, among others, the Universities of Washington, Vienna and Columbia (New York) shows that mast radiation is capable of damaging the DNA in the body by breaking it down, not only affecting reproductive capacity and causing degeneration, but also with effects on the formation of brain tumours. This damage was observed after one week's exposure to the radiation for just a few minutes each day.
A major review of the biological effects of mobile phone radiation was recently done by the ECOLOG Institute of Hanover, Germany, commissioned and paid for by two mobile phone companies. The resulting report was hard-hitting to them and confirmed disturbances of DNA replication and the statement that this could explain their cancer-causing effects.
I am afraid I must disagree with Mr Dolan's contention that we should "be reassured." In fact, the situation is becoming far more worrying.
Mrs E Roberts,
Bideford.
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