We strongly object to the proposal for a OPTUS mobile phone base station on 49 Purchase road close to primary school and classrooms.

What Are These Antennas Doing To Our Kids While They're In School?'t worth the risk. They should not be subjected to radiation when there could clearly be devastating effects as outlined in the various studies. School boards and parent organisations need to be aware of the inherent dangers from such an exposure. It's been clearly shown that it can penetrate the head of a child much easier than that of an adult. This is due to the thinner and softer bones in the head of child. Skull bones don't fully harden until about age 22.

1. Why this site was chosen so close to community sensitive areas, in front of primary and secondary school directly affecting 3000 children. Mostly kids will either be in class room studying or playing in the ground and not expected to use mobile phone in school premises.   
 
2. The proposed base station is just across the road and less than 20 meters from classrooms in Cherrybrook Technology high school, even though the NSW Department of Education and Communities states “a preference” for any telecommunications infrastructure to be built at a distance of at least 500 metres from the boundary of a school property.
 
3. What are the alternate sites considered for the base station?
 
4. There are already two mobile base stations located within 500 meters on both sides of the schools one on Cherrybrook shopping village and other corner of Shepherds and New line road. An Optus customer for 10 years living  close to schools, there was never a problem with mobile coverage in this area and 4G mobile broadband data upload and download speeds are excellent.
 
5. There are currently no studies that prove EMR to be harmless. Long term studies on the health effects of EMR on children from mobile phone base stations do not exist. The technology for these sites is relatively new and evolving rapidly and the research is insufficient or non-existent
 
We know that the science community is very much divided and there are a lot of unanswered questions about the long-term health effects of this kind of EMR.  Number of studies do show, that long term exposure (Chronic) which is not in the standards can have adverse effect on health.

So just like cigarettes and excess alcohol consumption- perhaps the time to stop the increase in RF radiation close to our children is NOW. Right now, not tomorrow or the day after. NOW.

Let's hope for a positive response and outcome from OPTUS.