Action against mobile phone tower

By Natalie Woodlock

HOBART -- An action committee has formed to oppose the construction of a Telstra mobile phone tower next to Lenah Valley Primary School. Scientific research suggests that exposure for long periods of time to the microwave radiation which mobile phone towers emit may cause cancer, impaired learning and memory function and changes in brain chemistry.

Paul Chapman, a Lenah Valley School Association member, told Green Left, "The Australian safety standard for radiation emission only takes into consideration the heating effects of microwave radiation. This ignores research which suggests, but doesn't prove, that low-level exposure has long-term health effects." Children have been found to be three times more likely than adults to be affected by the emissions.

Telecommunications carriers currently do not have to comply with local government standards for the construction of mobile phone towers, leading to towers being commissioned next to schools or child-care centres and in residential areas.

Community campaigns have been run on the Gold Coast, in Sydney and in WA which have succeeded in having mobile phone towers de-commissioned. Chapman said that the Lenah Valley School Association is also pushing "the federal government to set standards that are applicable to long-term exposure, and to raise public awareness of the possible health affects of mobile phone towers".

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