Students ‘in danger from mast radiation’
Jonathan Marciano
PARENTS have been alerted to worrying levels of radiation at a Muswell Hill school.
About 100 people packed into Tetherdown school hall for campaign group Muswell Hill Against the Masts' first public meeting on Tuesday.
Glynn Hughes, a former telecom engineer and radiation expert, took readings at the school with a radiation monitor. He said the levels were high and would have concerns about the effects on children.
He said: "I am worried about the levels of radiation I have seen in the school."
He cited two masts affecting the school - the new Vodafone mast in Grand Avenue and another on Sainsbury's in Fortis Green Road.
The meeting follows a campaign by the Muswell Hill group to have the masts removed by operator Vodafone.
Meeting organiser Sarah Purdy has children at the school, just 200 metres from a phone exchange.
She said: "We are not against mobile phones, but these masts have to be kept a safe distance from our schools and nurseries, which was the advice given to the government by its expert adviser on radiation."
Muswell Hill already has 30 masts and the latest are close to Tetherdown, Greygates nursery and the Treehouse school for autistic children in Woodside Avenue.
The meeting also heard from Ingrid Dickinson, scientific director to the national campaign group Mast Sanity, who warned parents that there was growing evidence that radiation from mobile phone masts was dangerous.
Ms Dickinson said: "German doctors have found that brainwaves alter after mobile phone use and from living near phone masts. And research on rats has found that the white blood cell count drops, indicating a compromised immune system."
She added that radiation from masts also affects the body's ability to make melatonin, a hormone which helps to suppress cancer.
Urging parents and residents to write to their MPs to protest, Mr Hughes added: "The only way to get a safe mobile phone network is through people power. These masts need to be at least 500 metres away from schools."
Mr Hughes also demonstrated curtain material containing carbon and stainless steel, which could help shield homes from the effects of radiation.
Haringey Labour councillor Gideon Bull told the meeting that he would be pushing for the council to ban phone masts on its land but that it had no power over private landowners.
Tetherdown headteacher Evelyn Pittman refused to comment on the meeting's findings.
broadway@hamhigh.co.uk
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