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Office of Hazel Blears MP
Minister of State
Home Office
50 Queen Anne’s Gate
London
SW1H 9AT
6 April 2004
Dear Ms Blears
TETRA health Issues
I am writing on behalf of many people in Sussex to ask you to take just a little time to understand the facts surrounding TETRA a little better. I do not presume to be an authority on the matter by any means, but I am a professional and well qualified person. I am also among those in the UK experiencing a peculiar electrical sensitivity to a TETRA mast erected and functioning just 100 yards from my home. I shall not go into details here, since that is not my immediate point, but suffice it to say the mast is preventing me (and other residents around Woodside Road, Worthing) from sleeping. This is a long-term effect for which there is no long-term medical intervention, and you will be aware that it is extremely damaging to health.
My issue today is the misunderstandings given out about base station safety, included in your recent ministerial briefing as enclosed. Two factors are clearly being misrepresented:
- whether there is a 17.6 Hz signal component to base station transmissions
- whether the measurement of radio frequency intensity from digital base stations is an adequate assessment of safety.
I have taken the liberty to enclose with your briefing a factsheet from O2 Airwave given out to reassure the public, together with reasoned arguments from one of the better local websites (www.worthingnotetra.org.uk) on the two issues.
(1) You should be able to conclude that there is no argument that base stations transmit signals at 17.6 Hz, since the suppliers say they do, and everyone who measures the transmissions can indicate clearly that this is so. (2) You should also be able to agree that safety standards for microwave transmission intensity are far and away irrelevant compared to the coherence of the signals (ie how they resonate at cellular level).
Since even the NRPB agrees that many people are somehow electrically hypersensitive, and that even ordinary mobile phone masts give rise to "feelings of being unwell … that are real and not imaginary", you have a duty to take note of the proliferation of reports of ill health ensuing from TETRA masts. These are only allowed to be reported to you defensively as being "anecdotal" because no-one with responsibility for public health has yet been prepared to investigate the correlation between the reports and the location and activation times of TETRA base stations. It is very hard to be taken seriously, despite the very real impact on people's health.
If you visit the Worthing website, for example, and then use the links to see what else is being said around the UK, you will become aware not only of the strength of feeling, but the physical suffering that is being denied all around government quarters. You will find there a letters section indicating how hard it is for ordinary people to be taken seriously. We are as bright and intelligent as you are, and we can see that something is happening.
Please note that from this point on you cannot say that you do not know how much you yourself have been steered towards inadequate descriptions of TETRA, and the reported impact on people all over the UK. You should also investigate the quality of reassurances you have been briefed with regarding the satisfactory functioning of TETRA systems in emergency situations.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Yours sincerely
Andy Davidson
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