One of the neighbours just knocked on the door wanting me to sign a petition against the erection of a mobile phone mast at the end of the street. When i told him I had no objection and wouldn’t be signing he got the right hump, told me I didn’t care about children with leukaemia and shuffled off down the path muttering about schools and community.

Was I wrong? Are mobile phone masts a secret killer or is it all just nimbyism and tabloid scare stories?

I have 48 hours to reach an informed position on the safety aspects of mobile phone masts after which time the petition, which presently consists of 4 names on a jotter will be posted and I will be forever ostracised.

Search for the double blinds where they told people it was on when it was off etc.

Had someone come round with a petition to get a phone box installed locally so the kids would be able to call home…

Had someone come round with a petition to get a phone box installed locally so the kids would be able to call home…

Was that followed up 12 months later by a petition complaining about groups of kids hanging around the phone box at night?

Tell them you need to think about it, and could they give you thier mobile number to call them back when you have made a decision….

You’re absolutely right, I’d have done the same thing.

Are mobile phone masts a secret killer or is it all just nimbyism and tabloid scare stories?

Its ‘grains of rice’

There have been instances where two people in the same locality develop a rare kind of cancer. When something like that happens theres the temptation to look at the environment around you for a ’cause’ – if they see a phone mast they suspect that – if they plot all the occurrences of their rare cancer – theres alway a mast in the vicinity. The problem though with rare events is they are randomly distributed, not evenly distributed. The analogy would be to take a handful of rice, scatter it across a map and presume anywhere that two or more grains were grouped together was significant.

Where mobile phone masts come into play is…. anywhere there are people / homes there are mobile phone masts, so whenever anyone is looking for a bogie man to blame for a random occurrence there always a phone mast nearby. So if you plotted any kind of event on a map – occurrences of any kind of illness – the distribution would always match the distribution of phone masts. But it would also match the distribution of post boxes, grit bins and lottery terminals.

I have 48 hours to reach an informed position on the safety aspects of mobile phone masts after which time the petitio

This is the problem with petitions – they mean nothing. If your neighbour gets 99 signatures does it mean he asked 100 people and all but you signed? Or does it mean he asked 10,000 people and 9901 people told him to get bent?

Read up on Inverse Square Law and then also factor in that a mobile phone will up its transmit power when the mast signals to the mobile phone that its signal strength is too low.

So having a mast nearer to you will result in a lower power output for the radio transmitting device that’s closest to your body pumping out those scary waves.

Also the antenna within the mast are usually directional rather than omnidirectional so standing under it or close to it will result in you being outside of the optimum beam path from them anyway.

Read up on Inverse Square Law …

I was genuinely willing to invest some time into having a quick read up on this until he insinuated that i might be a supporter of child leukaemia after which I reevaluated the level of the discussion and thought nah sod it, I can get all I need to know from STW.

[edit]
I just read a couple of short explanations of Inverse Square Law. Took me right back to physics classes which in turn triggered thoughts Julie in the science lab, so this hasn’t been a complete waste.

Mobile signals are non-ionising radiation. Not enough power to knock electrons off atoms in the body. Generally all it can do is excite atoms which makes them hotter. The strength is generally low enough that it won’t do any harm just being in proximity to a mast.

The only theoretical risk is with a phone stuck next to your head as it has been possible to detect the head heating up during a call. Actual damage is much debated but isn’t proven. It’s probably no more dangerous than sitting with your head next to a radiator. It’s nowhere near as intense as a microwave oven in level of heating.

Ask him for his phone number, and when he gives you his mobile number, just call him a nimby, and rest your case there.

These are very much the same people who don’t like microwaved food because it is radioactive.

But are happy to eat a banana

There are people out there who think that they can hear windfarms from up to 10km away, and it is driving them mad. Yeah, its the windfarms.

The only thing you did wrong, was not laughing in his face, then, mercilessly taking the piss.

We made a petition to stop a fish and chip shop opening in the shop below our flat.

Had one guy answer the door and refuse “we won’t sign petitions on principal, we believe in liaises fair”, wife and daughter followed me down the street to sign it out of view!

As has been said the guy doesn’t understand propagation of radio waves. In short the more base stations / mast there are then the lower the transmitted power the lower the power then less heating effect on the body. If you want more info look at ICNIRP site http://www.icnirp.org/en/applications/base-stations/index.html

Also those that work within the industry are probably at far higher risk as they work close to the transmitters but not heard of anyone having health problems from that sector.
Most hospitals have them on the roofs, if it was causing that kind of problem then it would also be affecting the medical equipment I would have thought but it doesn’t seem to.

But are happy to eat a banana

Well that was an interesting 10 mins with a cuppa – “Banana Equivalent Dose” 🙂

This is a great chart (EDIT: and I do know the difference between ionising and non-ionising radiation – worked at Sellafield 20+ years ago, and wife teaches physics):

I’ve had a hell of a lot of Banana doses then within the last 5 years, all mountain bike related. Mainly from a couple of CT scans. 70,000 each! 😮 . Fair few general x-rays, though they’re nothing compared to CT.

Though while the fatal does is massive, that’s fatal as in you’ll die there and then roughly from the exposure. Decades later death from cancer is another matter.

But as said, mobile masts are non-ionising. Indeed, bananas are far worse for you. I’ve always thought that 😀 (though actually very good for bike riding).

I wouldn’t want a mobile phone mast at the end of my street. I’d be OK with a chippy though.

These are very much the same people who don’t like microwaved food because it is radioactive.

What! Oh crud, I just microwaved my milk for my coffee. Am I going to die?

😉

if we had a mobile phone mast at the end of narrow cul de sac no vehicles would get out or in.

There was plans to put one up on 3 corner wreck where we live. 3 corner wreck is as it sounds a big park where people play football, there’s swings slides etc and it’s about 40m from the school gate. A huge petition was drafted which I didn’t sign as I forgot. They put the fecker up about two weeks later. No one has died yet…

johnners – Member
I wouldn’t want a mobile phone mast at the end of my street.

Why not? Have you not read the above comments?
And before you say anything, there is an O2 4G mast the other side of the main road onto which my road joins; it’s close enough I could almost throw a stone at it from my front gate and hit it, it’s about 100ft away.
I’m really happy to have a 4G signal now for when my BT wifi cuts out.

Why not? Have you not read the above comments?

Well OK then, why should I actually want a gert metal tower at the end of my street? Do you think I should be starting a petition to get one erected?

I could deffo use a good chippy though.

And before you say anything, do some work on your throwing. You should easily be able to hit a mast 100ft away.

told me I didn’t care about children with leukaemia

He is the cruel bastard trying to prevent all the local children getting those free healing beams of radiotherapy goodness that ward off the naughty cancer.

Am I going to die?

Eventually yes, and someone may say “if only he hadn’t heated his milk in the microwave”.

A convenient chippy is probably a greater health risk

There’s one at the entrance to our road. It is disguised as a slightly too tall telegraph pole, you don’t really notice it.

Good on you OP. too many interfering house price obsessed nimbys in this country.

I thought the whole worry over comms masts was over but maybe they’re not erecting as many as they once did plus some consolidation of operators and better mast sharing have had an impact. Christ knows the O2 signal s $hite in too many very well populated areas.

I have worked in mobile telecoms for the last 12 years and I am still alive.
More chance of a tower falling on top of you than getting cancer from the RF emitted IMO!
Agreed though they are not pretty to look at and the equipment cabs have a tendency to multiply over time, especially if a street site.

Why not? Have you not read the above comments?

Non of the above comments have addressed the fact that they look like absolute shit.

@deadkenny Does this mean that all the houses in the vicinity will have reduced heating bills as a result of this mast?

Non of the above comments have addressed the fact that they look like absolute shit.

So you’d be wholly supportive of an aesthetically pleasing phone mast on your street?

Non of the above comments have addressed the fact that they look like absolute shit.

They don’t have to

Also any petition citing health concerns will be easily dismissed at the planning application decision stage… pretty much a useless approach. Citing adverse visual impact might be more successful. But it’s likely the mast would still be put up and painted green or disguised as above

house price obsessed nimbys in this country.

Bah

Too many multinational corporations whacking up fugly structures to make more money

If it was a Vodafone mast, you might get away with a humanitarian objection – based on preventing them inflicting their woeful network on even more people…

Rachel

There’s a couple of masts near us which are very cleverly disguised as trees. Still plenty of squirrels around though.

There seems to be an obvious failure of reasoning in that post…

I wish they’d put a phone mast up on our road, the network coverage is dreadful at the moment.

But are happy to eat a banana

Hate to break it to you but that’s a bit of a red herring. The body’s homeostasis mechanisms mean you’ll just excrete the excess potassium (which won’t have been any more radioactive than the potassium inside you anyway).

Biological half-life =/= radioactive halflife