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Mobile Phone Masts

Tom Morris

Thinker
T
Joined
May 6, 2004
Messages
155
Hi all,

In Britain currently we have a big, organised campaign of NIMBY-ists ("Not In My Back Yard") who are muttering 'Think For The Children' whenever the subject of mobile phone masks are brought up. They seem very dogmatic about the fact (they claim) that their is a strong possibility of children's brains exploding and all the other horror stories (I'm waiting for tales of some twisted mobile phone Rapture, but alas, mobile phone masts have yet to attract an equivalent to Jenkins and LaHaye).

Anyone got any scientific evidence either way? I'm interested, as most of the studies seem inconclusive. I'm just wondering in case anybody has better science-fu than me could point me towards the different studies (apparently, a Manchester University study said there was no risk).

Discuss away!
 
This is also a big issue in Sweden. In short the available research is rare and has not proved it to be dangerous, as always its impossible to prove something safe. However the radiation levels are rediciously small. I'm more suprised that they think FM/TV-broadcasts are safe that use magnitudes higher output. There was a big studie from Holland that found some odd results that were contradictory. Cant remember the name of the institute right now. There was also a study from Spain that showed adverse effects but as I recalled it had some methodological problems.
 
Tom- you might be interested by the "Biomagnetics" thread in "General skepticism and the Paranormal"

Skip the first page.

Link
 
The Institutes homepage is TNO , right now I can't find the report there. If you PM me your email I'l send it, its a Acrobat file at 1.9Mb though
 
Soapy Sam said:
Tom- you might be interested by the "Biomagnetics" thread in "General skepticism and the Paranormal"
Click to expand...
In all fairness Soapy, you should have warned Tom that quite apart from the risk from mobile phone masts, there is a definite risk of your brain exploding if you read that thread in one sitting.
 
My local newspaper has been running a 'Shock Waves' campaign, to fight against evil phone masts. Presumably because they emit shocking waves, or something. They claim that phone masts gave a young girl cancer. Naturally, the science is lost on these moronic halfwits.

It comes as no surprise that the paper is owned by the same company as the Daily (hate) Mail.
 
I find it particularly amusing that the radiation from a 'phone mast several hundred metres away should be considered more dangerous than having a phone a few millimetres away.

I fear that the "evidence" usually boils down to.....

REPORTER: Can you assure us that people living near phone masts will not get cancer ?

SCIENTIST: No, they will get cancer, just not at a higher rate than you'd expect

REPORTER: Well there you have it even government scientist don't deny that 'phone masts cause cancer

b.t.w do you have an e-mail address for that paper ?
 
Could someone resolve a basic question I have on this?

What is the ambient background level of the kind of radiation that the masts emit, i.e. do they add anything nothing much to what we get from the Sun and other sources or is their output very powerful and in a frequency range to which we are not otherwise much exposed?
 
I'm sure the true reason for NIMBY's is more usually house values (or rather devaluing of), which is fair enough but doesn't get you much sympathy.
 
Badly Shaved Monkey said:
Could someone resolve a basic question I have on this?

What is the ambient background level of the kind of radiation that the masts emit, i.e. do they add anything nothing much to what we get from the Sun and other sources or is their output very powerful and in a frequency range to which we are not otherwise much exposed?
Click to expand...

I have read, although that is why I post for clarification, that one study suggested a link between mobile phone masts and radiation. It said that the further one is from a mobile phone mast, the more radiation would be emitted to get the signals to mast. The study concluded that if you put the masts closer to areas where people use phones then there would be less incidence of such higher radiation blasts.

But the whole debate does seem one of hasty conclusions and lots of presumptions on the side of the NIMBY-ists.
 
The ambient background levels of electromagnetic radiation from the sun is arguably much stronger than mobile phone masts. UV, visible and infrared light has the same heating effects on tissue as EM-radiation of longer wavelengths. I don't think many are scared of getting a tan because of the heating effects in the tissues. The strengths of EM-radiation from our solarsystem at the radio wavelengths should be much smaller I guess since our own systems are not affected by them unless there is a solareruption.
I can understand the notion that mobile phones may induce heat in the brain and that there could be adverse effects of that in theory but here we are talking about mobile phone masts where the levels are magnitudes lower than what you would get from the mobile phone itself.
 
Personally, I've never understood what all the fuss is about.

They're mobile masts, just move them if your worried. :)
 
The Don said:
b.t.w do you have an e-mail address for that paper ?
Click to expand...
Firstly, here's a link to one of their stupid articles: http://www.thisisexeter.co.uk/displ...ayContent&sourceNode=136999&contentPK=9956300

Secondly, here's a link to the email addresses for the paper:
http://www.thisisexeter.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=137189&command=newPage

Sadly, the search function doesn't work properly, so I can't show you some of the more amusingly moronic articles. However, a search for the words 'shock', 'waves' & 'cancer' shows four pages worth of articles.
 
Tom Morris said:
Hi all,

In Britain currently we have a big, organised campaign of NIMBY-ists ("Not In My Back Yard") who are muttering 'Think For The Children' whenever the subject of mobile phone masks are brought up. They seem very dogmatic about the fact (they claim) that their is a strong possibility of children's brains exploding and all the other horror stories (I'm waiting for tales of some twisted mobile phone Rapture, but alas, mobile phone masts have yet to attract an equivalent to Jenkins and LaHaye).

Anyone got any scientific evidence either way? I'm interested, as most of the studies seem inconclusive. I'm just wondering in case anybody has better science-fu than me could point me towards the different studies (apparently, a Manchester University study said there was no risk).

Discuss away!
Click to expand...

Like most things in life, the truth is somewhere in the middle.

The people who say there is no risk at all are liars. And the scaremongers who claim that everyone will die a gruesome death in minutes are liars too.

There are plenty of good research reports around which show that EM exposure can have strange effects on cells. I don't think anybody could deny that. But at the same time, strange effects, doesn't necessarily mean that they will have a significant impact on health. The body after all is an adaptive system.

The whole problem in this area is that all the interactions are so complex that nobody can really say what's going to happen in any given case.

Personally, I would never live directly underneath or very close to a major power line or a commercial radio transmitting tower. But I do have a small microwave link on my roof and that doesn't bother me at all. I think it's only sensible to limit exposure where possible and to avoid huge, high power installations. A mobile mast? I don't know to be honest, I have no idea what kind of power levels they use.

But at the same time there is a whole industry of self appointed "experts" who go around spreading scare stories. Why? Simple, they make money out of it or get fame from it. They get invited to do interviews for TV, radio and newspapers, they get paid for those. Some sell dubious "protection devices" as well. The media doesn't want to interview people who have nothing interesting to say (like that there is little risk). They want people who will shock, scare and create controversy because it helps their ratings. Unfortunately, there are always some who will oblige.
 
NIMBY'ists don't want a tower around?

Just call these folks,

http://www.utilitycamo.com/sites.html

Have them sneak in and put up a tower in the middle of the night. If anyone asks just say "No, that tree/cactus/silo/cross has always been in your back yard. I'm surprised you never noticed it."
 
Yes, they have been doing that. It's usually on things like flagpoles, churches, tall school buildings etc.
 
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