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Sir William Stewart
Chairman
National Radiological Protection Board
Chilton
Didcot
Oxon
OX11 0RQ
25 May 2004
Re.: our letter of 21 April 2004
Sir William
I was greatly disappointed to receive a reply to our letter to you of 21 April, from Dr John Stather. Counter to what I have read of Dr Stather's earlier concern for more research in this area, it was a standardised attempt at reassurances regarding the probable safety of TETRA transmissions. We could have written the letter ourselves, from the number of times we have read the same response, and we are indeed familiar with all the documents and sources referred to. However, they do not begin to address our enquiry.
Our enquiry and proposal, following considerable correspondence with the Home Office, and enquiries across the range of research institutes engaged in Home Office and MTHR research, was not frivolous. We are simply asking that, considering the degree of reporting of adverse health effects from people living in proximity to TETRA base stations, this should be taken seriously and investigated. Whether you regard these effects as 'merely' a surprising degree of induced electrical hypersensitivity, or as a warning of something unforeseen, the adoption of precaution should be paramount. Where electro-sensitivity results in sleep deprivation, or recurrent nosebleeds in children, or epilepsy, this should not be taken lightly. I am also in receipt of the correspondence between Mrs Mandee Keeling of Bognor Regis and Dr Stather. In both cases the response from your office was singularly inappropriate. To paraphrase it (and not unfairly): 'it is unlikely you are really suffering anything at all - go away'. Meanwhile we are living with the unfettered power of these transmitters beaming into our homes, our children's bedroom windows while they sleep all night, and being tested and experimented with by their operators.
In many circumstances like these, there can be a high level of popular paranoia, and indeed of psychosomatic response, followed by a long drawn out period of wondering whether there is any more serious long-term effect to be expected. We do understand that the new and the unfamiliar give rise to unwarranted concerns. Indeed, we do survive travel above 40 mph, once proclaimed to be unsurvivable! Nevertheless, the fear is often, though not always, borne out, as many recent examples have shown. In the case of TETRA, there is very good reason indeed to indicate that psychosomatic disorders are not in the primacy. Do not continue to refer to this as 'concern and distress' as if nothing is in fact happening.
Our concern is that, whatever the proof of risk from ordinary mobile phone masts will turn out to be, there is most definitely something about TETRA that is different. We try to find out, and we are concerned with such scientific enquiry that has led a number of highly respected scientists to warn against environmental use of pulsed microwaves at frequencies around 16Hz, or indeed against all ELF EMR.
I don't know if you are personally reassured that TETRA base stations do not pulse, but it seems quite extraordinary to me that the manufacturers, users and installers appear not to know whether that is how the technology works, and have to argue about it from interpretation of observation. I don't work out if my car has a heater by driving around on a cold day with a thermometer! I look at the design specification and ask how it controls internal heat levels. If my car is not warm in winter, the heater is not working. But I don't discuss with people whether they feel warm or not, in order to determine whether it has been built with a heater. Digital radio communications do have specifications of how they work, and TDMA operation surely determines the nature of the signal, both from a handset and from a base station, or indeed a repeater.
But whether or not you accept the reassurances that TETRA base stations present any risk to health, and whether or not their 17.64Hz burst frequency represents pulsing to you (however that has been defined), it has to be acknowledged that there are no guidelines, international, national or industry wide, that address how much power differential constitutes a 'safe' pulse, or indeed why or how pulsing affects living organisms. That ELF EMR does affect living organisms is not in contention, as indeed you are aware from its use in medicine.
So here we are, led to be reassured that guidelines on thermal effects of static microwaves are an adequate guide for ELF EMR, in such a way that when we report adverse biological reactions, they are relegated to anecdote and unworthy of investigation. Sir William: I'm not frying; I'm just not sleeping! Using the ICNIRP guidelines is like using a thermometer to listen to the radio. I have been told many times: 'such perceptions are not to be dismissed', but in truth that is exactly what happens.
There is no current or planned epidemiological work on TETRA base stations, and reassurances from the NRPB, and passed through Parliament that relevant research is continuing, is increasingly disingenuous. It is quite wrong, ethically, socially and morally, to place these base stations in densely populated areas, switched on 24 hours a day, and then only monitor policemen. But that is what is happening, and no-one, least of all the NRPB, the Department of Health, or the Home Office that chose this system, appears to care one jot about what people are saying about their suffering.
I am told with apparent amazement: 'how comes this is a southern phenomenon: we haven't heard this from Manchester or Sheffield. It's because of all these activist groups.' If I didn't know that tree pollen causes hayfever, I would think I had a summer cold. TETRA is new to us all and has gone in with such speed that we have all been caught out. Most GPs are probably quite unaware of the effects of ELF EMR on living organisms. Most will not know about TETRA, and if they do, are probably unaware that they emit ELF EMR. So when someone who cannot sleep goes to their doctor, neither has a clue that the cause might be a transmission mast.
And of course John Snow was really out on a limb when he took the pump handle away from Broad Street in 1854.
With so many people suffering adverse health effects, that follow the patterns of switching on, powering up and down of TETRA base stations erected so close to their homes, we are urging you, in your position of authority vis á vis the NRPB and the HPA, to respond to what is now an urgent issue of public health.
No-one will say TETRA is safe, in the way that publicly prescribed drugs are declared safe - even with declaration of side-effects. People are being told directly by the NRPB, in response to that question, and in writing: 'you must make your own mind up'! Doesn't everyone look to the NRPB for definitive guidance? The NRPB cannot look to public opinion for a guesstimate on such a matter of public safety. Please take our requests seriously, because this issue is not going to go away, and people's lives are being seriously affected.
I look forward to a properly considered response to which you have given your personal attention. I know you are a very busy man. So am I. But I must work daily with headaches and sleep deprivation, and you are the person with the responsibility.
Yours sincerely,
Andy Davidson
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