08/06/2006 - MEP stands for common sense approach

Taken from the Salisbury Journal, residents of Ashley Heath are running out of time to object to a 30-metre high Orangs PCS Ltd phone mast in their village.

This in itself is no big news, but what is worth of note is the stance being taken by Green Party MEP Caroline Lucas, who is advocating that a higher level of precaution should be applied to the siting of mobile phone masts. Her comments were as follows:

It is good to see recognition that the current exposure standards are simply not appropriate to assess the non-thermal effects being reported. The ICNIRP guidlines do a perfectly adequate job of assessing and preventing the levels required to create significant thermal effects, but new far lower guidelines need to be created to take into account reported effects from those exposed to far lower doses over prolonged periods - such as those people living close to base stations.

When there was a scare about the red food colourant Sudan 1 not that long ago, new guidelines were set in place to protect the British public. Large quantities of ready meals and other food-stocks were removed from the shelves and trashed for having levels over 1000th of the level where brain cancer was found to be being cause in laboratory rat tests. So why, when there is research showing similar cancers in rats from mobile phone radiation at levels the British public are being exposed to, are we not using a similar precautionary stance? What is it about the cellular phoneindustry that make the politicians demand such high levels of repeatable scientific evidence before introducing more appropriate precautionary guidelines?

We strongly suspect that it is the billions of pounds each year that governments around the world are making from mobile phone revenues. The mobile revolution is the modern 'gravey train' - the only really big commercial success story, bringing in enormous funds for industry, commerce and governments. There is no will to try and restrict this at present. Governments tend to think only in 3 to 5 year time frames (to the next election), when the symptoms being tested for (e.g. brain tumours) typically take a minimum of 10 years and, typically, 15 to 25 years to show up in the victims.

[Link to Salisbury Journal Article]

Also in the news

Successful Irish mast protest rally

Following the actual protest march along the N7 (which runs through the town), invited speakers addressed the crowd outside the town hall. Among these was well-known disability rights campaigner and MEP (Ind) Kathy Sinnott. She acknowledges her full support of our EHS campaign for recognition and equally acknowledges that this physical disability is aggravated severely by radiation from masts. She said that she and the British MEP Dr. Caroline Lucas are committed to supporting our cause in Brussels. The primary objective, she pointed out, must be recognition of EHS and following from that would come acknowledgement of multiple illnesses caused by the same radiative source. She suggested that electrosensitives in Ireland should select among themselves a representative best example and then they should bring this case to her and she in turn would bring it to her committee in Brussels.

It seems there is a growing momentum behind those wishing to prove that EHS is a real condition and that its association with EMFs is more than just psychological. In context, it is also interesting to note that the Irish Doctors' Environmental Association (IDEA) officially recognise the syndrome, including the association with Electromagnetic fields

[Link to Omega News Article]