Chiltern Green Party

More than 50 people assembled on Wednesday (30/3/05) evening to protest at a proposed mobile phone mast being sited close to the Platform One Creche at Ashley Green Road, including members of Friends of the Earth and the Green Party.

"This is a disgrace" commented Nick Wilkins of Chesham and Amersham Green Party. "The Stewart report specifically referred to the dangers of erecting masts close to schools and facilities for the young. Yet this is being pushed through under delegated planning powers and without referral to the full Planning Committee which had previoulsy unanimously rejected a mast on this site. The Council has got some explaining to do."

Green MEP Caroline Lucas has also written to the Council on this issue. She said: "Throughout my time as an MEP I have sought to change the planning laws relating to mobile phone and TETRA masts, which are at present totally inadequate. Too often mobile telephone companies ride roughshod over the wishes of local people, who are understandably concerned by the uncertainty surrounding the health impacts of mobile phone radio base stations. This flies in the face of the Mobile Operators Associations's own so-called 'Ten Commitments' wish 'to deliver significant improved consultation with local communities'"

Dr Gerald Hyland of Warwick University has published papers criticising the ICNIRP [1] safety criteria for GSM and TETRA base-stations only considering the heating effects and not the other properties of microwaves.[2] Reported health consequences of long-term exposure to radiation from GSM base-stations include:-

* Sleeping disorders / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome * Memory / concentration problems * Headaches * Anxiety * Seizures in people (particularly, pre-adolescent children) who already suffer from epilepsy * Nose bleeds, especially amongst young children attending schools where (or near to which) there is GSM Base-station * Unexplained clusters of human cancers in the vicinity of certain GSM Base-stations, whose non-involvement remains to be established [3] * Much reduced neutrophil counts, which reverse in the absense of exposure.[4]

The last-mentioned effect is particularly important since it shows that the effect of GSM radiation on the immune system can be objectively quantified.

For further information contact Nick Wilkins on 020 7886 3930 Attachment: "Don't give a young child a buzz" - Nick Wilkins joins the protesters

[1] International Commission for Non-Ionising Radiation Protetction

[2] "How exposure to GSM & Tetra base-station Radiation can Adversely Affect Humans" G.J Hyland May 2003

[3] For further details see www.mastsanity.org/Documents/cluster2003.doc

[4] A neutrophil is a kind of white blood cell, important to the immune system, which engulfs bacteria