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p2
 Thirty million people over
half the population of the UK use mobile phones. The government recently auctioned new
wavebands and gained £22 billion. Internet access is now part of the sales package.
It's a far cry from the day in 1891 when a Kansas City undertaker called Almon B. Strowger
introduced automatic electro-mechanical telephone switching. His purpose was to prevent
the woman who was the local switchboard operator and wife of his main rival putting all
enquiries through to her husband. The 'Strowger Automatic Telephone Exchange' allowed
customers for the first time to dial direct without going through a human operator.
Nowadays any amount of undertakers can be contacted instantly. We shall probably have to
wait a little longer before we can phone people who have passed beyond the grave.
Unfortunately, the explosive growth of this industry has not been matched by effective
scrutiny and regulation in the field of health and safety. Cellular phone base-station
masts, necessary to send and receive mobile phone calls, have sprung up in large numbers,
often in areas of high density population. These emit a continuous stream of microwave
radiation pulses, albeit at a fairly low level.
However, Powerwatch ( www.powerwatch.org.uk
), an independent pressure group, says that, 'children, because of their size, tend to act
as resonant aerials at cellular phone frequencies, thus enhancing the signal levels in
their bodies.' They say that because little of the radiation goes directly downwards, a
free-standing mast a hundred metres away will give higher exposure to children than an
antenna on top of a school.
Houses next to microwave masts have become harder to sell Stoke Newington estate agents
please note and a 12-15m eyesore of a mast on top of a house is safer than a 6.5m lamppost
mast outside your bedroom window. Powerwatch concludes that the current phenomenal growth
of the mobile phone business means, inevitably, 'that most people will end up living near
to a cellular base-station mast.'
Planning permission for the installation of antennas is not necessary as it is official UK
government policy to encourage the growth of telecommunications. In 1995, President
Clinton issued instructions that Federal (government) buildings should be used as the main
sites for cellular-phone masts and not schools or homes. The New Zealand Ministry of
Education has banned antennas from all state schools. Nearer home, Islington Council has
stopped all further installations.
It was these types of concern that prompted the Hawksley Court Tenants and Residents'
Association to stop the installation of six new masts by the phone company Orange. They
refused to allow the company's crane access to the site by blocking the road and exit.
Eighteen months previously, Mercury had erected a large base-station (see photo) on the
estate without any communication with the residents 'one2one' or otherwise.
Wendy Ambrose, Treasurer of the Association, describes it as 'a monstrosity' and says that
a number of families have reported children with mysterious new ailments, including rashes
and swellings.
Hackney Housing Department, who give permission for the installations, did hold a meeting
to announce the Orange mast but only invited those living in Carlyle House. This is
strange as radiation travels outwards rather than downwards and would be more likely to
affect those in buildings and open spaces adjacent to Carlyle House. The Council obviously
saw it as a construction issue rather than a health and safety matter. Only seven people
attended and some residents complained that they hadn't received invitations.
Hackney is due to receive £8,000 (plus inflation) per annum over 10 years for the mast at
Carlyle House. Lister Court, Yoakley Road only attracts a nominal £3,000 over 20 years.
This will not be paid for the first 9 years as Orange fixed the roof. The Mercury
installation on Barrie House, Hawksley Court is priced at £7,000 p.a. on a 10 year lease.
The payments are allocated to the improvement of the appropriate estate.
Apart from health and safety considerations, it would appear that the Council did not
exactly drive a hard bargain with the wealthy global operators who need new sites as a
matter of urgency. Not only have they signed the leases at low prices but their legal
advice is that they will have few, if any, grounds to oppose their renewal.
The Council told N16 that Orange were 'inflexible' on the issue
and were insisting that the contracts be honoured. The National Radiological Protection
Board, the government advisory body, had measured emissions and would report in August.
Initial findings indicated very low levels of radiation. The Hawksley Court masts would be
up 'in the next few weeks'. Orange would not activate the masts until their own survey,
carried out by independent experts, was completed.
This is unlikely to please the Residents' Association as, at a recent meeting, they heard
campaigners from Oxfordshire, Hackney Friends of the Earth, and a representative of
Unison, the health trade union. Diane Abbott MP and Councillor Jules Pipe also spoke. None
of them recommended that the masts be installed. The meeting agreed to set up a working
party to look at alternatives.
As yet there is no firm scientific evidence that mobile phone masts do have directly
harmful effects on human beings but if the actions taken by the Hawksley Court residents
and other groups make phone companies, government and councils stop, think, check and
think again, they will have performed a public service to us all. Most people remember the
bland official assurances on nuclear power, BSE and asbestos.
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