It was quite ironic last week . I was feeling for the residents in your article about cellphone towers popping up everywhere. A few days later driving out of Newlands, what was being erected on our main road? You guessed it another huge cellphone tower. How many more have just appeared around Wellington recently? This is now one of the first things you see when you turn onto the main Newlands road. How do those residents feel? Were they consulted at all, as the size of the tower will certainly impact on their situation? Yet again shame on the council for letting it happen and shame on the telecommunications companies for not being more sympathetic to residents health.

It's very sensible to be wary of possible health effects as well as the appearance of cell phone masts. While co-location sounds good in some respects, in others it also is a problem. Emissions are cumulative, despite being at different frequencies within the microwave portion of the spectrum. Therefore co-location will lead to increased microwave levels in buildings and outdoor areas nearby. It is unknown how the different modulation techniques of these different frequencies interact with relation to any effect on humans. Co-location should therefore be under conditions that base stations can only be co-located on commercial buildings. They should not be co-located on residential, educational or care facilities such as hospitals or in residential areas. In a Chinese newspaper Nov 3 2007 it was reported that Taiwan’s Kuomintang Legislator Lai Shyh-bao wants all base stations in the country to be established on top of public buildings, 1500 base stations were ordered to be removed from other buildings. The country’s total transmitters at that time were to be reduced by half. Quote from Taiwan News, Central News Agency, Tues 6 Nov 2007. It’s worth noting that there have been several cancer-clusters in or near buildings that have co-located transmitters on their rooves or on masts. - 2 degrees say they want what Australia has (re co-location) but even a cursory look at Australian cities demonstrates that this leads to a visual mess on both masts and some buildings and aesthetically (and spiritually in places of worship) despoils them. Benefit: - Co-location on rooves seems likely to be better than on the sides on buildings and other lower sites. The NRPB Report W62 (Britain) found low-height microcell base-stations such as those on the sides of buildings led to higher public exposure in buildings on the opposite side of the road than higher powered roof-mounted sites. This is relevant to some local bodies such as Wellington who place height limits on free-standing masts (for visual reasons) leading to transmitters below roof levels such as the new one behind the Kelburn village shops. Here transmitters are likely to be exposing people to 2 or 3 microwatts per square cm. inside their homes. Likewise for that planned in the Marsden Village. Relevant parameters for evaluating ‘safe’ pulsed microwave radiation exposure levels are still unknown, but may not be dose-related in all frequencies. It could be related to: a particular frequency (setting up resonant effects like a voice shattering glass at a particular note) or specific amplitude (setting up resonant effects like water in a pipe making banging noises with a certain level of flow). It could be related to how different frequencies or their modulation pulses interact. We can only be sure that zero exposure is a safe level. Since this is unrealistic, setting levels as low as reasonably achievable (ALARA) is the next best thing. The Swiss standard incorporates a reduced permitted exposure level for sensitive sites which is one way that we could go about adjusting our standard. Public pressure to improve coverage is based on a lack of understanding of the implications. Improving coverage means more masts and transmitters, and increasing chronic public radiofrequency exposure, as does increasing the number of providers. Three providers is more than enough. The National Environment Standard is a very bad piece of legislation for which the submissions were barely considered and poorly reported. The Wellington City District Plan is currently under revision regarding placement of cell phone sites. See DPC74, but again it's been kept quiet and submissions close today at 5.00!!

Myself and a number of residents are already reporting buzinng in the ears from the Cell Phone Tower opposite our homes. I was recently diagnosed with Tinnitus as a result of months of buzzing from the high levels of microwave radiation measured in my lounge. In 2003 Motorolla research released a metastudy of over 65 papers into a biological effect called the Microwave Auditory effect. The level of Microwave radiation I measured in my lounge corresponded to levels in the study where buzzing in the ears can occur. Cell Phone Towers in front of homes and schools should be outlawed!!!