The UK public are spending FAR too much on mobile and mobile phone calls.
That is what is requiring and funding all the masts! The public (collectively "us") are funding this plague.
This message neeeds to be got out and taken in by people who do not want to live close to a base station. Every mobile call made or received means that another base station or extra transmitt channels are likely to appear close to that place (your home?).
Mobile phone use now contributes over £10,000,000,000 per year in taxes to the UK Government (2004/2005 figure from an O2 report) - that is money mobile users are paying to support the government. There is another £27,200,000,000 paid into the coffers of the telecomms industry by the public and corporate users.
Extract from Feb 2006 Ofcom Report:
http://www.ofcom.org.uk/research/cm/feb06_report/comms_mkt.pdf
Telecoms
• Based on data supplied to Ofcom by operators, retail revenues from all telecoms services in the 12 months to 30 September 2005 were £37.2 billion – over 6% higher than in the previous year
• In the year to 30 September 2005, fixed-line revenues fell to £10.3 billion – down by 9% compared with the previous 12 months – while revenues from mobile communications grew by 16% to £13.6 billion
• At the end of September 2005, Ofcom’s research showed that there were 62.5 million mobile subscriptions – a figure that is higher than the total UK population. Further consumer research by Ofcom showed that around 80% of UK adults (some 40 million) use mobile services, suggesting that a significant number of people now have two or more mobile subscriptions
9.10: 3G subscriber base showing steady growth
The number of 3G mobile subscriptions continues to grow, and we estimate that there were around 4 million in the UK at the end of September 2005 (Figure 53).
This is an issue that Mast Sanity needs to campaign on if we seriously want to make any real difference to the number of masts and their siting.
Everyone should minimise their mobile calls to really important (and short!) ones only and always try to use a wired land-line phone for most phone calls.
Remember, according to the Hardell et al studies, over ten years of mobile phone use, even at 1 call per day(!) more than doubles the risk of brain cancer. More use brings some brain tumours up to about 4-fold more likely to develop. And that is only brain cancer. We believe that there are many other adverse systemic health effects from regular exposure to such microwaves.
Think of that if you allow your child or grand-child a mobile phone. Remember that current UK Government and UK Dept Health official advice is that children and young people under 16 should only use a mobile phone in an emergency. They have covered their backs. It will be the parent's fault if their children develop serious problems through mobile phone use before the age of 16. They may be actually paying to harm their children. Is that a lottery YOU are prepared to pay and play with your children's health?
It has often amazed me how many anti-phonemast campaigners allow (and often pay for!) their children of 16 and under to have and use a mobile phone.
Powerwatch will soon be publishing some interactive graphs of mobile phone use and brain cancer studies.
Alasdair
http://www.powerwatch.org.uk
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Thank you for this summary Alasdair. I fully agree that it is only through the obsessive use of mobile phones that the need for the masts continues to grow. I am sure we have all seen evidence of this behaviour in people around us (including family and friends) - the inability to put the phone down! I was in a cafe in Burton on Trent last week when a woman and two boys (aged approx 10 and 12 yrs) - both staring blankly at their mobile screens - sat at a table opposite. When their food arrived the woman told the boys to switch off their mobiles. The younger one did so - but the older boy did not - his was left on the table still switched on. I believe this to be compulsive behaviour caused by the effect of the phone emissions.
It appears, from recent news reports, that even the Queen finds it difficult to leave her phone in her pocket without repeatedly taking it out to look at it - and we have heard over the last couple of days the problems Charles and his staff have experienced through careless mobile use.
What is most surprising, though, is that they speak of mobiles not being as "safe" as is generally believed - but only referring to the security, when the biggest issue is HEALTH.
Can we not put out a press release linking these two points - while it is newsworthy?
Sylvia
