| Campaigners, who have threatened to take Fife Council all the way to the Court of Session over its decision to approve a highly controversial series of TETRA police communications masts, have welcomed new moves made on the issue south of the Border, writes Gordon Berry.
Unlike members of Fife Council’s environment and development committee, councillors on Arun District Council have now deferred any decision-making in West Sussex until the full health implications are known.
Members of Fife’s East Area development committee had come to the same conclusion over a number of local applications, but their recommendation was overturned by the central committee in Glenrothes.
The decisions were made in the face of calls for a delay in advance of NHS Fife convening a meeting at which the views of experts in the field will be sought.
Now the decision made by Arun District Council has been accompanied by a call from south-east England Euro-MP Caroline Lucas for a moratorium on the building of TETRA masts until questions of radiation emission safety have been answered.
As debate intensifies all over the country Dr Lucas has called on other authorities across the south-east to take the same action, and she said many people are “deeply concerned” about health effects of TETRA mast emissions.
“These fears have been heightened by the fact that users of TETRA handsets have reported suffering migraine, burning sensations, sleeplessness, and a lack of concentration.
“People’s real concerns about the masts supplying these handsets 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.
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” said the Euro-MP.
Dr Lucas 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. |
