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To: Mike Clark, NRPB
Date: 23 March 2004
Mike
Thanks for that (allowing his email to be represented on this site); we like to keep the conversations open. I gather from recent conversations at the Isle of Wight that you do guarantee a response to emails referring evidence of the ill effects of TETRA base stations (at least) for examination. Also, I gather that you continue to state in public that "there is no evidence".
I am therefore really surprised that you don't count my email as such evidence. Am I the only person to write to you? Or is your reason for not responding that you are in fact busy with too many emails and letters? I am quite sure that we can direct the experiences of thousands of people to you if you wish, in individual emails from all around the UK.
Proposal 1:
Why do you not accept the challenge, and make a public announcement in the mainstream national media, calling for people living near TETRA masts to submit their experiences?
I also gather that you think there are insufficient subjects willing to demonstrate their sensitivity in experimental conditions for Home Office Research. I like many others do indeed volunteer, and are ready to be contacted. Where are your researchers looking??
You can no longer claim in public, or indeed in any meetings within the NRPB, that there is no evidence of TETRA causing ill effects on people. Admittedly, we can so far point most clearly to short-term effects, because the progress of TETRA has been so fast, but I also know you are already aware, for example, that there is a cluster of recurrent cancers in Dursley that are being attributed to TETRA after a much longer period with these emissions.
To stand by while people slump into disability and death, all for the cause of "we think the effects are unlikely" and to go on saying "there is no clinical evidence" is not just irresponsible, it is culpable. You must no longer pursue the long outdated presuppositions of Professors Challis and Blakemore to misinform and misdirect intelligent thinking people, to rubbish all contradictory research, and to prevent further consideration (such as reconvening the Stewart Committe) from going ahead.
Perhaps there was a time when you felt it right to allay fears and anxieties, and when you felt that an uninformed public was over-reacting to something they (and you) knew little about. What you have now is a much better informed public (no thanks to O2 Airwave), who are experiencing effects on their lives that (I presume) Professor Challis and others, even yourself, do not. You have a system here that is doing great damage, driven by misinformation from its operators, and under persuasion for acceptance by the police under conditions that amount to bribery.
Why does O2, for example, claim that 35 police authorities are using TETRA, when only 11 or 12 are doing so? The higher figure was in an mmO2 press release in February: a "milestone", and is widely quoted. But when pressed, O2 does confess to the truth. O2 claim that Europe is rolling out TETRA; again that is untrue: it is not. No, O2 is trying to persuade all of us that resistance and proper assessment of safety is futile, so they can take the money and run. While the truth stands that mercifully few systems have been adopted, this is your chance to find out what is really happening, from the people of Great Britain.
There are other matters to take up with the Health and Safety Executive, including interference with heart pacemakers, that you must surely be aware of. Perhaps you feel it is outside your remit when we ask why some TETRA masts in rural locations warn people with pacemakers not to go near, while masts to the same specification are simultaneously placed among housing, and handsets used in homes, without such warnings being given. Maybe you think that this kind of protection is up to Ofcom.
Proposal 2:
Since both Ofcom and NRPB are responsible to the nation over the safety of TETRA, why not do some of the famous joined up thinking and work together and with the HSE to actually look at what is happening before it is too late?
And my question from my last email still stands:
Could you give any indication that the NRPB is prepared to intervene, given that residents here are desperate to know when life can return to an acceptable norm?
regards
Andy Davidson
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