Though many schools could make good use of the income they would get from accommodating a mobile phone base station, local newspapers report constant campaigns against them on the grounds of a presumed risk to the pupils' health. Like many Other IEE members, I feel frustrated by being unable to quote firm evidence relating to the health risks from an antenna radiating a few watts 30 metres up in the air. So though London Branch members were encouraged recently to hear about the volume of work directed towards developing the evidence, they still had to be told by John Swanson of National Grid and Zenon Sienkiewicz of NRPB that more research is necessary. Of course, it is difficult to prove a negative; the best that can he done is to look for positive effects and say that none have yet been found, so we have to live with some uncertainty. However, the speakers said, there is no uncertainty at all about one health risk from mobile phones -using one while driving a car!
展开▼
