Date published: 2005/08/31
The Cambridge Evening News says:
A pioneering scheme to monitor radiation emissions from mobile phone masts is being launched in Cambridge.
There are several masts dotted around the city, some attached to the sides of buildings and others disguised as lampposts and telegraph poles.
However, many people have condemned the masts amid fears of health risks from the emissions.
Now Cambridge City Council is launching a scheme - one of the first of its kind in the country - with Vodafone to record emissions and display the results on the council's website.
But, while mast protesters have welcomed the scheme, they say it is not enough.
The project will involve a unit, called Cassiopeia, which will take measurements of Electromagnetic Field (EMF) emissions from the Nuffield Road area of Chesterton in the city. The area has four mobile phone masts - two off Cowley Road and two off Milton Road.
A graph will be published on the council's website so residents can check if they are within health and safety guidelines. The unit will be moved to other areas of the city later.
Fears have been raised that microwave radiation from mobile phone masts could cause health problems such as cancer.
But experts, writing a report for the National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB), the Government's official watchdog, said the levels given off were so low they were incapable of causing ill health.
Tim Long, the council's telecommunications liaison officer, said: "Operators are required to ensure they comply with safety guidelines and this new unit offers continuous monitoring for the first time.
"Members of the public can visit our website at any time and check the EMF levels for themselves. We see this is as a demonstration of transparency and openness and as a way of providing a certain degree of reassurance about this controversial issue."
This issue is controversial in the UK in the same sense that intelligent design is controversial in the US. On one side stand the luddites, on the other everybody else. Well, perhaps the UK is different, because in the case of mast emissions, it's likely that the real opposition is from NIMBYs just masquerading as technophobes. And how many of the opponents themselves, or members of their family, use mobile phones? This whole exercise is almost certainly a complete waste of money. But you never know, some useful fact might be discovered from all the data. Except that most data in the world is never analysed by anyone, and this data will almost certainly fall into that category.
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