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Friday, November 03, 2006
Mobile mast protester who will not be silenced
RIGHT now there are over 50million mobile phones in use in
this country — that’s coming close to one per head in our
59million population. Over the years our love affair with
this new technology has ensured that the mobile phone
manufacturers release ever more sophisticated models every
couple of months.
At first there was the brick phone with a non-colour screen
which literally weighed the same as a house brick.
Nowadays they come with vivid screens, cameras, music
players and radios.
They’re a way of life. But then again so was smoking not
so long ago. And like cigarettes there’s an increasing
number of people who are pin-pointing mobile phones as a
health hazard. It’s not just the phone itself — but the
masts that are needed to carry the signals.
Mobile phones at present have short transmission ranges —
so in order to ensure a signal, masts have to be erected at
fairly frequent locations. Today there are 35,000 of these
masts across Britain and the number is growing.
But increasing numbers of individuals and groups are doing
battle with both the government and mobile phone operators
over the siting of new masts and the possible radiation
damage being emitted from them.
The quiet community of Wishaw in Sutton Coldfield in the
West Midlands just near the Warwickshire border may at
first seem an unlikely setting for what was a long-term
battle with one mobile phone giant — but it was here that
one woman’s campaign against the industry was won with the
help of some Irish courage.
It is not just in this country or Ireland that the name of
Eileen O’Connor is now well-known in the campaign. Her
ongoing objections to the siting of these masts have
encouraged other protests across the globe.
The story starts at Eileen’s home in Wishaw when a 74-foot
high TMobile mast was erected 12 years ago on a patch of
land some 300 yards at the rear of the house she shares
with husband Paul and their teenage children George and
Grace.
That mast is no more — but it took one of the most
vigorous campaigns in this country before it came down one
November night.
At first the presence of a mobile phone mast at the rear of
their new home did not seem too important — Paul and
Eileen were too busy renovating their home and bringing up
their two children to take much notice of the multi-finned
22-metre high structure.
But a few years later Eileen began to feel unwell with
constant headaches, loss of sleep and unexplained rashes
all over her body. Also of concern to her was the fact that
George began to have unexplained nose bleeds and Grace
suffered nightmares.
Friends and neighbours in and around Wishaw also began to
notice health problems.
The house too seemed full of electrostatic which could be
felt in the bedroom when touching the metal bed frames.
In 2001 Eileen discovered a lump in one of her breasts. A
visit to her GP resulted in an assurance that the lump was
only a small cyst.
But a few weeks later the lump had doubled in size and was
soon diagnosed as cancer. There followed six months of both
chemo and radiotherapy before a major operation.
Today Eileen is still receiving treatment although the
prognosis is that for the moment the cancer is in
remission.
But Eileen is convinced the cause of her illness as well as
the unexplained medical conditions suffered by her family
and neighbours related to the siting of the mobile phone
mast.
She began to research all the known facts relating to
mobile phone mast radiation transmissions — and despite
all the assurances issued by the mobile phone operators and
government Eileen was still convinced the mast was to
blame.
With the help and support of her friend and neighbour Lynn
Insley Eileen began to document the various illnesses in
and around Wishaw.
Among those living in 18 houses within a 500 yard radius of
the mast there were 20 cases of serious illness including
cancers of the breast, prostrate, bladder and lung.
One man had Motor Neurone disease and many of the people
affected were only in their 30s and 40s.
With so many of her neighbours attending hospital for
treatment at the same time as she was Eileen decided to set
up SCRAM — Sutton Coldfield Residents Against Masts.
Calls to T-Mobile resulted in Eileen being told emissions
from the mast were well below government guidelines.
But their answer failed to convince the campaigners — who
enlisted national media and lobbied MPs Mike O’Brien,
Patricia Hewitt, David Davies and John Ryan to take up
their case.
The move worked. In November 2003 something or somebody
pulled the mast from its base and left it lying on its
side.
Eileen said: “When I went to see what had happened I cried
with delight.
“Even to this day nobody in Wishaw seems to know how the
mast came down.”
Naturally the phone company wanted their broken mast back
— but they hadn’t bargained with the Siege of Wishaw.
Residents surrounded the downed mast with a posse of
volunteers and camped on the site 24 hours a day determined
there would be no mast replacement.
The stand-off lasted for almost 18 months until finally the
mast owners admitted defeat.
But with victory secured Eileen and her friends refused to
let the matter rest.
Today Eileen’s time is spent dealing with similar
worldwide protests.
Her most recent involvement was when she was invited to
speak at the Health Protection Agency in London where she
presented her case for the health issues surrounding mobile
phone masts.
Most pressing to her is trying to stop the siting of the
masts near schools.
She said: “We will not stop the huge increase in mobile
phone use but what we are all about is where these masts
are sited. They should not be near schools.
“Wales has taken the lead with a recent vote at the
National Assembly to the principle of full planning consent
for mobile masts.
“This leaves England very much isolated as the only part
of Britain where full planning consent for phone masts is
not required.” Eileen is also turning her attention to
Ireland — one of the heaviest users of mobile phones.
There Dubliner Con Colbert is waging his own battle over
mobile phone masts — claiming he is suffering ill-health
from transmissions from a transmitter on top of a garda
station.
Mr Colbert also claims other people are suffering from a
wide range of symptoms including burning of the skin and
sleep disorders. He is just one of an increasing number of
people now lobbying the Da´il for more data on mobile
phone mast emissions.
In Ballygawley in Co. Tyrone villagers still talk about the
150-foot high phone mast which was cut down some years
back. It was thought that the death of a local man in his
early 50s from cancer precipitated the revolt against the
mast.
At the time local SDLP councillor Anthony McGonnell was
quoted as saying: “There have been a number of other
people in that area who have cancer and obviously local
people are very concerned that this epidemic is being
caused by the presence of the mast.”
For Eileen this is an international issue — and she points
to research in Germany and Russia which has backed her
case. But she believes the amount of money the British
Government receives from the mobile industry in taxes and
levies means there is a reluctance to tackle the issue.
She said: “Right now the British Government receives some
£10billion a year in revenue from the mobile phone
industry.
“Emergency government funds should be released — starting
with at least £50million in order to deal with translation
of German and Russian research, an education programme,
media campaign and funding to independent scientists to
carry out further research.”
Despite all the statistics on safety handed out by the
government and mobile phone operators Eileen still remains
convinced long term exposure to phone mast emissions can
cause serious health issues — and so the campaign will go
on.
Eileen said: “There’s an election coming up and if
politicians do not take note then the campaign we have had
here in Wishaw will be a drop in the ocean compared with
what we will plan.”
And does Eileen really know who pulled the mast down in
Wishaw? “Do you believe in Leprachauns?” she smiles.
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