Thoughts for 2006 with TETRAWATCH

What next?

There are many campaigns around the UK, wondering what happened with TETRA and what on earth thy can do next. It feels as if the floodwaters have breached the levees and we’re all standing around in calm, if deep water. Only unlike New Orleans (well, maybe) there is no disaster recovery.

Users

TETRA users are finding what the Airwave system is really like. From what we hear, there are many reservations about the quality of coverage, the reliability of transmission in some circumstances, the effects on well-being, and the use of non-TETRA add-ons to create the data communications environment that O2 Airwave promised. There is a lot of patching to make good, development on the fly, and like all new systems, many glitches to fix. And like all good technology sectors, fixes will be made.

The case of the missing slots

One interesting fix is the discovery that O2 Airwave is deliberately masking the 70.6Hz marker in the TETRA signal. Our German contacts are puzzled that Airwave required this in their TETRA in the first place, but the real question is, why has Airwave been doing this? Either:

• the service is compromised by the appearance of this pulse frequency, or
• the TV interference is worse with it, and Airwave really are being quietly kind to us in trying to repair the damage, or
• Airwave, like us, are concerned that this signal is part of the reason why people are made unwell by TETRA.

Your guess is as good as ours, but as far as we can tell, some people do genuinely recognise when the Airwave characteristics are changed, but that it doesn’t actually make things right at all, only different. And that too is very interesting; but we don’t want to be experimented on like this.

But the effects on people just spread

One thing is for sure: TETRA continues to affect a growing number of people. When TETRAWatch was called to Glasgow early in 2006, we found the same story there as at our roots in Sussex. People were exhibiting the same symptoms, without any prior understanding of EHS or what it is. Only the arrival of TETRA could explain their condition.

Two people prominent in the work of TETRAWatch moved house in early 2006, both for reasons of the impact of communications masts on their family’s health. For each, two years since TETRA was enough. From the beginning, the effects on their health was a complete surprise, not in any way a response to ‘oh dear, look at those scary masts, they’re making us ill!’. So no stupid comments about nocebo effects (opposite of placebo, harm caused by expectation) here, please. The impact on their families was such that despite the expense, the stress and the personal cost of uprooting, it seemed the only course. In both their homes, visitors would experience the same uncomfortable physical awareness of TETRA and phone masts; it wasn’t just their imagination. For each, their expectation had been a gradual recovery over months. However, when they first spoke, just a few weeks after moving, what they said was the same. Moving in, far from being stressful, felt like the first days of the hoidays. The immediate impact of disappearing headaches, profoundly different sleep, and even of birds singing in the morning was a complete surprise. So you still think this was a placebo effect then? OK, ask the old dog who suddelnly became a puppy again.

Moving forward

The political scene with regard to masts of any kind sems beyond rescue or reason. We have a Prime Minister who just knows best; about everything. We have an Office of Deputy Prime Minister that sets the rules, lays out the obligations, acts as prosecution, judge and jury, and suports the operators in everything they do. Only one thing matters: getting as many masts in as it takes to complete our 11 national infrastructures, whatever the costs and effect on people. Yes, democracy is well and truly dead in this respect, as reflected in the powerful POWER Inquiry report.

However, as the pressure from scientists and medical practitioners in Europe grows and grows, so the first creeping steps towards a more open and answerable establishment science may be being taken. Dialogue with the Health Protection Agency is one: will they ever be able to stand up to WHO and ICNIRP? Can we together grope towards the elusive mechanisms that explain why we see what we do? The establishment of HESE-UK is another: branching into the UK, the mainly German Human Ecological, Social and Economic Project will bring translations of scientific papers that seem to elude our English-speaking EMR review scientists, and stimulate dialogue with our medical professions.

Somehow we need robust understanding of the errors that allow researchers, such as those engaged in MTHR work, to perpetuate the entirely subjective notion that everything we are seeing is psychosomatic and can be remediated with cognitive behavioural therapy. In our experience sufferers are themselves initially wedded to technology. They love the gadgets, and are actually more puzzled and angry than fearful and neurotic when things start to go wrong. TETRAWatch, with its connections and wider work, will continue to press for better science, better knowledge, and above all better humanity in listening to what people are saying and starting to believe them.

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