5 replies to this topic

[Lori]

Has Electromagnectic radiation become the new pollution in the modern world?  Apparently it's not good for your health and emitted through wirelesss gadgets like mobile phones, wireless internet, cordless phones, mobile phone bases stations, smart meters...
I only use my mobile phone for work and most of the time have it on loud speaker unless I need to keep the call private.  However base stations for mobile phones seem to be popping up almost everywhere.  I know there are differing opinions about health risks associated with EMR, I'm not sure who to believe.  When I read about it I can't get my head around how it exactly works but I know when I use my cordless phone at home, if I'm on it too long my ear starts to feel hot.  So there is definitely something going on there.  It kind of scares me a bit and makes me want to go and live in a cave or something, maybe it will eventually kill us, or maybe humans will adapt over time like deep sea creatures in a harsh environment.

[snoorkelekroons]

I could believe at some point we will be surrounded by super highspeed wifi, most of our daily lives, that that could be unhealthy. So, yeah, it's something we should research and let the results drive technology (a human-centric-view not a bottom line view).

[Lori]

I'm going to court this week with a small local group in protest over a new mobile phone base station that is proposed to be constructed close to our residential area.   My arguement is that there are other base stations already erected in the area that they could use.  My mobile phone company shares a base station with another carrier, so I believe my arguement holds weight.

[wagtail]

Sure companies share infrastructure and all of metropolitan adelaide has phone coverage, the problem is that the services are over-subscribed.  Too many people accessing the same tower at the same compromises speed and reliability.

The NBN will alieviate some of the problems, as many people (like me) will migrate from mobile data back to land based services. Also the NBN will increase the capacity of mobile towers.

Regardless, I have never understood the concern about this one aspect of telecommunications, when you consider tv, radio and phones are all sending signals. The analogue tv signal will be turned off next month, so that's one less everpresent 'buzz in the atmosphere', but when you think about all of the sources of elec/mag radiation in a city the size of adelaide, to focus just on phone towers seems futile, especially if you own and use a mobile phone yourself.

I notice there has just been a study done on wind-farm noise which showed a correlation between people having symptoms not because of their exposure to wind-farms, but because of their exposure to fear campaigns about wind farms.

[Lori]

wagtail, on 15 March 2013 - 12:04 AM, said:

Sure companies share infrastructure and all of metropolitan adelaide has phone coverage, the problem is that the services are over-subscribed.  Too many people accessing the same tower at the same compromises speed and reliability.

That's what they said in court.  The phone company & council showed up with experts, and our group didn't have any.  The phone company has a small tower on top of building that is going to be demolished, so they want to put it somewhere else.  The site they chose is closer to residential housing, a children's playground and in between two very large significant gum trees about 10 to 15 metres apart from each other.  They want to place a concrete foundation in between these trees to support a 30 metre monopole, which is about 5 meters taller than these 100+y.o.  trees.  They didn't consult with an arborist before making that decision.  So we have an arguement with that and hopefully we'll get an arborist when the case continues next week to put some light on it.  I'm not an arborist or a tree expert but I have learnt that when I have staked a growing tree in my garden, the tree ends up growing weak and leans to one side.  I'm not sure if the significant trees in question have stopped growing.
Also, they want to relocate the playground on the grounds that  it is near a main road,  I brought up in court that there are playgrounds near busy main roads elsewhere and mentioned the one in North Adelaide next to Fiztroy Terrace near the aquatic center.

[Lori]

Just to update on this, the Commissioner in court decided that the mobile phone tower should not go up until they get an arborist report and he refered back to the council.  So this 30metre monopole won't be going up until an arborist says those trees won't be affected. So the phone company with all these experts and what not in court, why didn't they get an arborist report in the first place?  An oversight?  You figure it out.