Wembury Parish Council has a proposal for a new phone mast in the village. They’ve been asked to see what people’s initial thoughts on this would be before going forward.

The proposal is to install a mast up at the park close to the children's play area, preschool and primary school.

Whilst many people are frustrated with the signal 'dead spots' in the village, I fail to see why the playing fields is the best location for a mast.  It is the one place in the village that the majority of resident children go to play on a daily basis, not to mention, spend their time at school/preschool.

Children are more vulnerable than adults to the effects of radiation as their bodies and brains are still developing which offers more opportunities for damage and adverse development effects. Their immune systems are weaker, their skulls smaller and thinner, and their brain tissue is softer, causing them to absorb substantially more radiation than adults. Children have a longer lifetime exposure compared to adults with as of yet unknown long term health effects.

Electromagnetic radiation (such as from telecom masts) has been linked to a plethora of diseases such as brain tumors, cancers, damage to DNA and genes, adverse effects on memory, learning, behavior and attention deficits, sleep disruption and neurological diseases like Alzheimer’s, immune system’s function disruption – to name a few.

Current UK radiation protection guidelines are much laxer than in many other countries (such as Belgium, Italy, Austria, China, Luxembourg, Russia, Switzerland), which has the disadvantage that they protect only against heating (thermal effects) but not against biological effects – i.e. the non-heating effects that scientists have now proved change the cell and are behind the majority of the diseases cited above.

Some countries, specifically New Zealand, Australia, Sweden, Italy and parts of the United States, have followed the precautionary principle further by banning mobile phone masts in or near schools.

UK authorities (NHS, Public Health England as well as the MTHR Programme, jointly set by UK Government and Telecom industry) acknowledge the fact that further research is needed to quantify the long-term effects on human health. All their safety findings so far cover only the first 15 years of usage.  Previous public health threats (tobacco, asbestos, sun-bed cancers) indicate that the evidence of risk often increases as research progresses.

Therefore, until it has been proven there is no danger to youngsters, children in particular should not be exposed to the 'potential' dangers of masts. We do not want to wait for irrefutable evidence that mast radiation is harmful. Given a latency lag of up to 20 years for many tumors and risk diseases at that point it might be already too late for our children.

 Therefore:

By signing this petition the signatories declare that they object to the proposed erection of a mobile phone mast at the Wembury playing fields, on grounds of the uncertain health risks of locating communication masts near schools, homes and play areas. We would also like to appeal to Wembury Parish Council  to reconsider the proposed location of the mast installation.  If a mast is to be installed in the Parish, then we ask that an alternative location be found, that is not located close to children's establishments and public play areas.  

NB. If you decide to support us please sign up with your full name. Thank you!