A few points about the siting of phone masts
Sep 12 2008 Letters To The Editor
Dear Editor, In response to Wendy Baggott’s letter (Post, Sept 3) “Sensible siting of phone masts” I would like to make the following points:
1. The ICNIRP radiofrequency (RF) health and safety exposure guidelines used in the UK on the recommendation of the Stewart Report in 2000 were adopted by the European Council of Health Ministers in 1999 and are widely used throughout the European Union and other parts of the world. They are endorsed by the World Health Organisation and the UK Health Protection Agency. Mobile phone mast RF emissions are typically tiny fractions of the guidelines as demonstrated repeatedly by Ofcom audit measurements throughout the UK during the past eight years. The Ofcom audit results can be viewed at: http://www.ofcom.org.uk/sitefinder/audits/.
2. If any local residents near the Kingswinford site remain concerned about cancer and other illnesses I would encourage them to take their concerns to the Health Protection Agency for independent examination and expert health advice.
3. The studies mentioned by Ms Baggott are on the WHO database of projects that examine the effect of electromagnetic field exposure on biological systems.
It is not the quantity of experiments but the quality of the experimental method that is important. Independent health experts have criticised many of these studies for technical flaws. Importantly, the WHO states that considering the very low exposure levels and research results collected to date, there is no convincing scientific evidence that the weak RF signals from base stations and wireless networks cause adverse health effects. A UK study on the same subject has been undertaken by Imperial College in London and is expected to be submitted for publication to a scientific journal later this year.
Michael Dolan,
Executive Director,
Mobile Operators Association.
-----
Another first for the West Midlands
Dear Editor, It was a huge honour for us to host the first Cabinet meeting outside London since 1921. And it was an unprecedented chance to put a bit of West Midlands wisdom to the ‘top of the office’, show some of our extraordinary achievements and above all celebrate some major new investments for the here and now – and the long term.
We’ve got a lot done in the West Midlands in the last 10 years. Our economy is £30bn bigger. We’ve 100,000 people more in work and with 100,000 more benefiting from the national minimum wage; 200,000 extra homeowners, and unemployment claimants down by 33,000. That’s not happened by accident, it’s because of investment in education, skills, health and policing – and above all, a stable economy.
But the public doesn’t hire politicians to tell everyone what a good job they did. We are after all, paid to go to work. People want the right decisions for the here and now and the future; help for people feeling squeezed as well as the future prosperity. Above all, they want to know that in a rapidly changing world we’re going to fight hard for a fair future for British families.
That’s the message that was centre-stage on Monday. The Cabinet got a chance to hear what I hear in my day job every week; people want extra help for families feeling the pinch and businesses having tricky discussions with their bankers. They want tough action on gangs and knife crime. And they want to know that we are going to lay the foundations to be ready for the upturn.
And on the announcement front, we weren’t short of good news - the hugely significant breakthrough of £120 million for a new Manufacturing Technology Centre, that will keep us at the cutting edge of manufacturing science for years to come. I thought it was going to take months of arguing. On Monday we got it. And a £65m boost for businesses facing tougher times this year and next – with special help for commercial developers able to create projects with jobs attached.
Politics aside though, I was immensely proud to be a Birmingham resident and a Birmingham politician. Monday was a spectacular chance for us to teach the rest of the country a bit of a lesson.
Before the Cabinet meeting, the Prime Minister and other Ministers visited a wide range of projects across the conurbation, showcasing projects – including a housing and regeneration scheme in Swanswell, Coventry, the Jaguar plant in Castle Bromwich and a Children’s Centre in Sandwell.
At Jaguar, the Prime Minister could see first hand fresh evidence of the hi-tech manufacturing renaissance our region is leading. I could introduce him to hundreds of new apprentices – evidence of the best performing apprenticeship programme in Britain. Ministers saw the stunning new hospital at QE2 – one of the greatest in the world; they saw the amazing work of our police delivering Britain’s safest major city.
They saw how we’re getting our act together on transport and how we’re investing in science. And they saw a region focused on using the new wealth we know it’s possible to create, and determined to deliver new homes and communities where we enforce the rules. They saw a region getting it right.
Over the next five years, government is going to back our region to the tune of £120 billion. What we got on Monday was a Cabinet that could see what we were trying to do. That plans are in place and an ambition to be world-beaters. As I knew we would, we knocked their socks off. I’ve invited them to come back soon!
Liam Byrne,
Minister for the West Midlands.
-----
Pictures of Carry On star
Dear Editor, After four years research I have just completed my biography of the legendary comedy actor Kenneth Williams.
Although it is still not too late to include new material or anecdotes, I am now looking for unpublished photographs of the Carry On star, who died in April, 1988. Perhaps one of your readers worked with him, knew him personally, or met him at a special event?
Your readers were kind enough to help with illustrations for some of my previous books -- Catherine Cookson, Tony Hancock, Sid James and Oliver Reed -- and I wonder if they could now search their scrap books and cupboards for lost pictures of Kenneth Williams?
I would prefer to make copies from the originals, but any material offered would be treated with care, copied and promptly returned. An acknowledgement and full credit would, of course, be included within the published book.
Anyone who feels they might be able to help should write to: Cliff Goodwin, 29 Tudor Drive, Tanfield Village, County Durham, DH9 9QD. Or contact me by email at: cliff.goodwinatbtinternet.com
Cliff Goodwin.
