Urgent check on Sark masts after cancer scare
Tuesday 22nd January 2013, 3:00PM GMT.
MOBILE phone masts in Sark are to be examined for emissions, the island’s Public Health chairman has said.
Following the disclosure that two young women from Sark were suffering from rare cancers, David Melling said the matter needed to be dealt with swiftly.
‘I will be speaking to experts and want it set up ASAP. From then on, checks will be done half-yearly or yearly, forever.’
The issue, which Conseiller Melling, pictured, said was of general concern to the population, will for the time being be limited to the area around phone masts.
But he said the tests might include random samples from across the island.
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These test should be applied to all the islands not just Sark. Mobile phone masts are a matter for concern and information should be gathered as to the incidences of any cancers being diagnosed to those living in close proximity to these masts. We are in the perfect position to put these theories to the test as living on such small islands this would not be a difficult task to undertake, but and it’s a big but there has to be the willingness to find out if these masts provide a threat to our health and maybe we or “big business” fear those possible findings.
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Veridique
If it was confirmed that there was a correlation between mobile phone masts and certain cancers (which I think is quite likely), the lucrative trade of these big businesses should be the least concern. We can’t always view the world from an economic perspective; we also have to take into consideration the idea of the supreme value of the human being and act accordingly to ensure that individual welfare is preserved.
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Is there any evidence to suggest that that the cancers are linked to the phone masts?
I would have thought that a more likely risk factor would be radioactive radon gas escaping into old houses from the bedrock. This is a known cancer risk for old properties in areas of granite.
Of course two rare cancers arising at the same time might also just be a very rare but random event.
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It’s not clear to me why mobile phone masts are suspected in this case. As far as I know there has never been a single confirmed case of cancer caused by these masts. Radon gas is a known carcinogen which is present in all the Channel Islands; there have been reports of incidents at Cap de la Hague and Flamanville. Have these sources been considered for urgent investigation?
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Hi Ted, i’ve been following this story as im an advocate of mobile phone masts causing cancer and have been dismissed as a pseudoscientist. Somebody did mention granite causing it! In all of nature there is uranium, say 1-3 micrograms per gram of soil, 3 milograms in a gram of beach sand and 3 milograms in granite. Uranium exists in nature. Uranium-238 has a half life of milions of years then it will turn to radium-226 then after a thousand odd years Radon-222 then only after a few hundred days it goes to polonium-210 then lead-206. Granite isnt porous so radon gas wont escape from it and Radon is more known to cause lung cancer. Plus Radon is inert it doesn’t mix with anything else and being a heavy isotope doesn’t carry on the wind so usual collects in basements. But im a scientist so you have to invstigate everything-at least i would so test for radon in basemsnts. I wouldn’t go on a witch hunt, a logical process of elimination is required
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“Might include random samples from across the island”, they ought to replace the ‘might’ with ‘definitely’ as such claims need to be corroborated either way so that preventative action can be taken and to allay public fears.
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Not got a mobile but that does not protect anyone from living by these
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If there was any proven link between mobile phones and a serious health risk, the world economy with almost as many phones as there are people, would probably collapse.
But there is always MUCH greater field strength at the handset than the mast. Even when the phone is not on a call and in your pocket, right up against your body, it is sporadically checking checking with the nearest base station or downloading email etc.
And as you move further from the base station, the signal level from your handset is boosted to reach the mast.
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It seems that there is so little agreement – or hard science – on this issue, that we might as well hire a witch doctor to do a dance and shake a few bones.
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Who knows what the source of cancer risk is, but it is not mobile telephone masts. The power output of those is about 100W, which even at a distance of a few tens of metres (which is how high they are mounted) exposes you to far less radiation than a mobile telephone handset, even if standing right underneath it.
The real biggest source of carcinogens on Sark is the incinerator which Dave Melling operates. Hence such urgency to quickly point the finger at something else.
For a fuller analysis of the likely risks of telephone masts, radon gas, Cap de la Hague, dioxins emitted by the incinerator, etc. see this article:
http://www.thesarkeetimes.com/?p=335
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