Press Notice

Euphoric Residents Living in Fear

For immediate use: 20 April 2004

Residents within about a mile radius of the Woodside Road TETRA mast woke up on Monday 19th April to discover their local TETRA mast had been turned off. There have been two months of protest, with demonstrations and meetings, and letters to everyone from the local Council, Worthing Football Club who host the mast, through to Government ministers, and all the regional and national health and protection agencies.

Local resident Alan Rice, commenting on the state of affairs said:

"We have not succeeded in anything yet. This mast, like the ones just turned off in Littlehampton, Arundel and Bognor, is just at a particular phase of testing. Either that, or it is because Ofcom is due to come and audit the site, which hosts other GSM and 3G mobile phone masts. O2 Airwave who operate the mast won't say what is happening. It is all very suspicious."

With the absence of consultation and information from O2 Airwave, local residents are left in limbo, just wondering when the mast will be turned on again, restoring all their problems and affecting the value of their properties. This time they know it will not be for testing, but permanently switched on. As resident Andy Davidson said:

"For eight weeks this mast has been depriving some of us from sleep. Some of us have found temporary ways of shielding ourselves, others have gone away and found respite. But it is truly awful. Last Thursday the mast was actually turned up for three days, making everything worse still. Waking up after this mast has been switched off this morning felt like waking up on the first day of a long holiday. It was utter bliss. Now we are living in fear of the moment it goes on again, forever."

Since the mast was originally turned on on 26 February, many local residents have reported symptoms including:

• sleep disruption with a characteristic pattern

• headaches of a particular kind that pills don't affect

• nausea

• nosebleeds

• itchy skin

• worsening of ME

• hallucinations.

These have been the same as reported at the other TETRA mast sites in Sussex, and are complemented by massive TV interference. O2 Airwave has infuriated residents whose initial anger was directed at the TV interference. The company will do nothing, claiming that everyone's TV equipment "is defective" and that they bear no responsibility, legal or moral.

Note for editors

1. TETRA (Terrestrial Trunked Radio) is the new Home Office radio communications system being offered to police authorities throughout the UK, at an initial cost of £2.9 billion. It offers encrypted secure communications and clear voice, and SMS text. Other features include the ability for handsets to communicate directly with each other and set up group calls, and a help button.

2. Contrary to Government interpretations, all UK TETRA equipment, including base stations, transmit digital signals in pulses that coincide with beta brain wave activity, with a clear risk of disrupting key biolgical processes. The Stewart report to Government advised that this pulsed frequency be avoided.

3. Pulsed radio waves at extremely low frequencies affect living tissues, promoting cell multiplication and growth, and are used in this way in the medical profession. 4

4. The core network, with partial coverage, requires nearly 3,500 masts across the UK, 89 in Sussex. Resistance in Sussex has resulted in severe hold-up to the rollout as O2 Airwave struggle to fill the gaps. 5

5. O2 Airwave has gathered a national reputation for stretching and breaching planning regulations, with a consistent lack of consultation, in a bid to complete its contract against much local opposition. Sussex Police Authority publicly distances itself from the behaviour of O2 Airwave.

6. The system has been criticised on grounds of cost, on real functionality, and above all on the possible dangers to health. The issues have been raised in Parliament and in the European Parliament, and the NRPB has indicated the need for more research.

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For more information, contact Tony Malone on: 01903 246486 or Andy Davidson on 0776 509 4434