Anti-mast campaigners showcase Coleshill cancers

THOSE WHO ardently believe that mobile phone masts are linked to a high incidence of cancer appear to have found a showcase in Coleshill, Warwickshire.

According to a report in The Sunday Times, Margaret Hines-Randle and 30 of her neighbours in Coleshill are either suffering with cancer or have already died from it.

Residents collated data on their illnesses and sent it to Dr John Walker, a member of the Electromagnetic Radiation Research Trust who studies instances of cancer around mobile phone masts.

He told the paper, "The masts typically throw out microwaves in three directions, and where the beams hit the ground is where you will usually find the cluster of cancers or disease."

In a single street - Castle Drive, and part of adjacent roads - 31 cases of cancer were found (including Hines-Randle). That's equivalent to one in every second person living in the immediate area.

"Coleshill has the largest single cluster I have yet seen," claimed Dr Walker. "This may be explained by the fact that Castle Drive is sited at the point where the beams from two masts converge, one of them at [St Edward's] school and another on the other side of the town."

Having enlisted the help of their local MP, the residents have succeeded in getting mobile network operator, O2, to agree to tear down the mast sited next to the school.

It is 15 years old and was probably due for replacement anyway. The fact that phone masts don't radiate directly underneath their physical location appears to have been overlooked.

The British government has adopted guidelines issued by the International Commission on Non Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) which state that base stations should not emit more than 10 watts per square metre - depending on the frequency used.

While most masts give out only a minute fraction of this amount, campaigners still feel the level is too high. Some experts have said current levels should be reduced more than a thousandfold.

Plus they point to cities such as Salzburg in Austria where levels have been set way below those imposed in the UK.

Even if there is no proven link between phone masts and cancer, the mobile phone industry has to wake up to the fact that most people believe there is one. µ

More on this story ... Sunday Times