Objection to mast - best way to object a Vodafone contractor proposing to erect a mast

[will kemp]

i can't be bothered really, so i'll take your word for it. i have to admit, i was only going on what i was told by a broadcast technician mate of mine, now in his 60s, who's been working with the stuff for decades. doesn't necessarily make it true, of course.

however, one "health" effect from close proximity to high power transmitters that used to be well-known among one sector of the community was the effect of living on the offshore pirate radio ships that broadcast from off the coast of britain in the 60s and 70s. living under those transmitters had the effect of making the people on board permanently tired. not a particularly big deal, maybe, but a health effect no less.

of course this could have been due to the high levels of positively ionised air around equipment like this - but you'd expect that to have been at least partly offset by living out at sea.

will

[Howard Neil]

Could this be the church? :-)

[Andy Luckman (AJL Electronics)]

[hairydog]

T-mobile

If they got advice from others, they were incompetent others.

[hairydog]

You didn't. That's why I asked the question.

[Brian Sharrock]

That must make life difficult for those that live say 100 metres from the (transmitter) antenna(sic) _aerial_. [This is _UK_ ]

[Brian Sharrock]

illinformed

Unfortunately Dave; if you point said torch directly at one ear of the original poster and look into his other ear -you'll be the one that's blinded.

[Brian Sharrock]

Snip

I'd be quite happy if the man on the Clapham omnibus realised that he doesn't have to shout to have the message transmitted ... and that it's not necessary to entertain the entire omnibus with announcemnts of 'I'm on the (Clapham) bus! Be there in ten minutes!".

BTW, can you imagine the reaction if you went up to a phone box and yanked open the door just so you could hear the words of a 'caller'. "Do you mind!" "This is a private call!" might be the more polite reactions. Yet the world-and-his-wife or at least his teenage-kids chunter on in the streets oblivious to every passer-by overhearing the conversation!

Yesterday, I was approaching a junction with a green light in my favour when this Japanese student walks off the pavement without stopping directly across my path -chuntering into his 'mobile -oblivious to any danger. Naturally, Ossifer, I was aware of my speed, stopping distance, and the interval adopted by the cretin sniffing my tailpipe so the thought flashed across my mind -"Remember the Burma Railway"- but I restricted myself to playing a rendition of the National Anthem on my single-tone horn. The Youth didn't even stop talking into his 'phone!

[Brian Sharrock]

Where is this _computer_ that you're 'sitting in front of ' located? Is it in a wall-papered or painted room? Do you smoke, drink or eat in front of the computer ? Do you have a DECT 'phone; Telephone; fax machine, Laser printer; ink-jet printer? Are there carpets. rugs, vinyl tiles, linoleum, on the floor? [Or the walls; if you're posh? ] The case for _a_ computer being the source of your 'health-effects' is not proven. If you're feeling the effects (from) sitting in front of a computer -then perhaps you should get out more. { unbeknownst to myself; I developed pernicious anaemia

- I had vague feeling of ill health but attributed it to lack of exercise - and; sitting in front of a computer - I collapsed and was taken to the hospital under the 'blues and two's' no-waiting on-a-gurney route to be told eventually that something had happened probably about four-or-five years previously and I'd been running on reserves until -like the 'ordinary' bunny in the Duracell adverts- my body ran out of the necessary and I collapsed. The haematologist told me reassuringly that 'pernicious means 'leading to death' but hastily added 'we can fix it!' If you are feeling "i have definite health effects" than I suggest you do -what I didn't- and get it seen to! ]

[Tony Bryer]

A certain amount of laughter IIRC. But that's not to say that the lady's symptoms were not genuine - if you convinced yourself that a proposed mast will give you migraines and heart flutters and it gets built you probably get them whether it's turned on or not.

[Loz]

Or many people at all for that matter!

[Brian Morrison]

Yes, it's the frame rate in the same way that GSM uses just a little below

217Hz. TETRA is actually 16.7Hz IIRC, but it's near enough 18 to be equivalent.

The frequency range that is likely to trigger epilepsy in terms of flashing lights is actually in the 5-13Hz region, as the frequency increases the response rate of the eye makes the flickering reduce markedly. I don't see how this can occur with RF as the only demonstrable effect of RF is heating and the thermal time constant of most bits of the body is so long that the pulsing is not really relevant.

[Chris Malcolm]

Yes, you're right. Might increase from an inch or so to as much as a foot or two. But that would only be the case if masts run at a high enough voltage (some thousands of volts) which I very strongly doubt. I think this is all nonsense invented by people who were always looking out of the window in their school science classes.

-- Chris Malcolm [e-mail] [phone] DoD #205 IPAB, Informatics, JCMB, King's Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ, UK

[John Rumm]

Ahem, antenna (or antennae) is actually correct for the UK as well. IIRC "aerial" is a shortened form of "aerial wire antenna"...

[John Rumm]

That seems a little unfair to the OP, since they did not give the reason for why they want to block the installation of the mast, you seem to be making assumptions.

[David]

In article , [e-mail] writes

The church not the provider, as far as I know mobiles are not a faith though I know that plenty of people worship them

Not necessarily, if you were asked to guarantee that a link will never ever be found between mobile masts and health problems, would you? (with your conservative, possibly £squllinons of legal actions hat on)

[Howard Neil]

Thank you for the explanation. I now understand the point made.

Since when have such allegations against the effects of radio been based on known effects? If they did, they would soon be disproved. It is only by making allegations based on the unknown (and unlikely) that the accuser can constantly fall back on the mantra "But you can't prove that it doesn't happen".

[Chris Malcolm]

Let's suppose that a mobile phone at your ear is 1cm from your brain. Let's suppose the phone is broadcasting 1 watt of RF power. So to have the same effect on your brain by a transmitter 10 metres away we would need to use (10 metres/ 1cm)**2 = 1,000,000 watts!

Since this is roughly 1000 times more power than a mast actually emits you are getting 1000 times more radiated power into your brain from a mobile phone thqan from a mast only *10* metres away.

Adjust figures to taste. The way the inverse square law works it's simply impossible to escape the conclusion that if a mobile phone mast could, say, cook an egg in half an hour, then a mobile phone ought to boil your head so quickly your eyeballs would be ejected so fast they'd pose a serious injury risk to folk nearby.

-- Chris Malcolm [e-mail] [phone] DoD #205 IPAB, Informatics, JCMB, King's Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ, UK

[Dave Fawthrop]

| Not necessarily, if you were asked to guarantee that a link will never | ever be found between mobile masts and health problems, would you? (with | your conservative, possibly £squllinons of legal actions hat on)

Ask a stupid question, get a stupid answer. Nothing in this world is absolutely safe. Even staying in bed for too long causes drastic bone loss.

[Chris Malcolm]

I've spent most of most days in front of a computer, or a video terminal, ever since they were first invented, and before that, in the old days of computer rooms, I worked in computer rooms. I guess that's about 35 years of pretty full time exposure.

I'm suffering from the health effects of spending too much time on my bum. Can't find anything to attribute to computers. Perhaps that's because I took the healthy precaution of working in draughty old buildings.

-- Chris Malcolm [e-mail] [phone] DoD #205 IPAB, Informatics, JCMB, King's Buildings, Edinburgh, EH9 3JZ, UK