Masts cause cancer????

twenty8

I was walking near my house last night and I saw a planning permission application stuck to a building near me. They are applying for a mast for mobiles.

What is the real story on these masts? Can they cause cancer? Is there any evidence to prove they are dangerous? Can I have proper reasons to object to this mast??? Actually starting to be a bit worried - bit of a NIMBY - want better coverage - but not there.

Any help would be appreciated.

maceocc2

In my opinion they can not cause cancer. I mean GSM is the highest used mobile service in this country and it operates at either 800Mhz, 900Mhz or 1900Mhz where as microwaves operate anywhere between a staggering 1Ghz and 300Ghz. The reason microwaves are so dangerous(cancerous) is because the frequency is high enought to cause the water in you vibrate and heat up due to friction, and mobile phone mast frequncies are not that strong.

Anyway its just an opinion, of course there will be people that disagree.

Gillo

At the moment there is no credible report that links mobile masts with cancer. They do give off a certain amount of radition but these are accepted to be within safe levels.

There are certain people out there who like to get worked up about one thing or another, mobile masts just happens to be one of them. My aunt for example is convinced that the mast on the top of her apartment gives off dangerous levels of radition and that it affects her health, this is the same auntg who spent hours on end stareing at crystals to improve her health- go figure.

The most recent report regarding these masts was published within the last 6 weeks sorry I can't remember the name of it, I read about it in the Irish Times. It did say that while masts gave off a certain amount of radition there was no conclusive risk to your health.

Think about it anyway, how many things in your house also give of radition???

If someone is going to post that they do cause cancer, can they please direct me to the relevant report.

andrew163

maceocc2 wrote:

it operates at either 800Mhz, 900Mhz or 1900Mhz where as microwaves operate anywhere between a staggering 1Ghz and 300Ghz.

1GHz = 1000MHz, so 1900MHz = 1.9GHz

Although your microwave oven is waaayyy more powerful in terms of watts. You'd have a hard time trying to cook food with your mobile phone. More likely to die of food poisoning than cancer.

maceocc2

andrew163 wrote:

1GHz = 1000MHz, so 1900MHz = 1.9GHz

Very true my humblest apologie, but you might be on to something about cooking food with your phone....sssshhhhhh patent the idea dont let vodafone have it.

Zwartsj

see here we go again as you said you want better coverage but just as long as the mast is not in your back garden its ok.
if you are worried about cancer there will always be something around you that’s going to give you cancer so you may as well enjoy getting it.

Honest to god will people just stop complaining about it.

personally I use to work in an office that had a Vodafone tower on the top of it. I use to sit right next to the room where all the servers and stuff for the tower was housed and other that this green glow I have there is nothing wrong with me.

if any one is wondering where this building is its in the middle of Rathmines village an no one even knows about the see here we go again as you said you want better coverage but just as long as the mast is not in your back garden its ok.
if you are worried about cancer there will always be something around you that’s going to give you cancer so you may as well enjoy getting it.

Honest to god will people just stop complaining about it.

personally I use to work in an office that had a Vodafone tower on the top of it. I use to sit right next to the room where all the servers and stuff for the tower was housed and other that this green glow I have there is nothing wrong with me.

if any one is wondering where this building is its in the middle of Rathmines village an no one even knows about it
Vodafone stuff in it

event

twenty8 wrote:

I was walking near my house last night and I saw a planning permission application stuck to a building near me. They are applying for a mast for mobiles.

What is the real story on these masts? Can they cause cancer? Is there any evidence to prove they are dangerous? Can I have proper reasons to object to this mast??? Actually starting to be a bit worried - bit of a NIMBY - want better coverage - but not there.

Any help would be appreciated.

do you have a mobile phone?

Sam Vimes

if engineers are going to work on a mast and there's a mast of another network in the same place they phone them and ask them to turn it off because the engineers start to feel sick after a while near it.

and there's a woman who lives at three rock who claims that her bones shake from all the masts on the mountain

kenco

No one is really 100% certain on the dangers of masts (in fact its not the mast but the attennas on same). From the maths perspective the radiation diminishes significantly the more you move away from the attenna.

In conclusion if you were to stand directly in front of an antenna for a very prolonged period of time then your risk of possible illness from the radiation would increase.

As other posters have indicated Microwaves and Mobile phones are far more likely to cause a problem but again with them it is prolonged use in close proximity....

twenty8

event wrote:

do you have a mobile phone?

That is exactly what I said. Yes I do have one and of course I want better coverage. and of course I am the first to complain if my signal drops. But does not mean that I want it in MY backyard.
It is the same as I know that prisons are necessary and that we have to have them - but do you want them behind you. Someone has to!!

lfc1892

there are many things in your environment that will give you cancer before a phone mast will.

The reason the engineers will need a mast turned off is that the big dishes are very powerful but they point directly to another mast and are not directed towards ground level. They are line of sight so there will be nothing between them and the next station.

Object if you wish, but don't call the network and complain about their coverage.

chrislad

My sentiments are exactly that. Fair enough, it's your right not to have a mast near you, but don't dare give out about any coverage for any network. It's you and people like you that prevent the country from having a 100% coverage figure. I don't mean that negatively, and you never know, I may feel the same as you if it becomes a reality that a mast is going up near me.

twenty8

lfc1892 wrote:

there are many things in your environment that will give you cancer before a phone mast will.

The reason the engineers will need a mast turned off is that the big dishes are very powerful but they point directly to another mast and are not directed towards ground level. They are line of sight so there will be nothing between them and the next station.

Object if you wish, but don't call the network and complain about their coverage.

But is the thing about the radiation from masts is that the radiation actually comes from the power source for the mast - not from the actual signal. So fine, the signal is ok for us - but the mast will kill you if you are close to it!!!

It is a bit ironic that if there were more masts it would actually be safer for us as the mast would not need to be as powerful so therefore less risk..... mmmm not sure how to argue that debate....

Urban Weigl

Your mobile is going to give literally thousands of times more "radiation" than living near a mobile phone mast. So if it did turn out that they were dangerous, it would be the phones themselves and not the masts that you'd need to worry about.

Anyhow, to date there has been no credible evidence that they are dangerous, whereas there have been several credible studies that show that they are harmless, including one involving the entire population of a country!

The Doktor

lfc1892 wrote:

The reason the engineers will need a mast turned off is that the big dishes are very powerful but they point directly to another mast and are not directed towards ground level. They are line of sight so there will be nothing between them and the next station.

The big dishes are really low power. These are not turned off due to the proximity of a person. They only transmit at around 0.2milliwatts (.0002W) to about 40 milliwatts (.04W). People seem to think because the are big, they are high power, but they are big because they are low power!
GSM antennae are only turned off if someone is going to be directly infront of panel itself for a period of time.

event

twenty8 wrote:

That is exactly what I said. Yes I do have one and of course I want better coverage. and of course I am the first to complain if my signal drops. But does not mean that I want it in MY backyard.
It is the same as I know that prisons are necessary and that we have to have them - but do you want them behind you. Someone has to!!

im sorry but you're a hypocrite then

they have to go somewhere

Bulmers

I work around these antenna etc as part of my day to day job, so just going to give my opinion on it here. Firstly there is no proof they cause cancer, these systems have been around now for 20 or so years so i think maybe by now if there was an issue, it may have manifested itself, although there is no proof either way so no one can say for sure.

The reason engineers get antenna turned off is basically because most of the power is localised 1m in front of the antenna, after that it drops off very quickly, it is safe to pass through this area ( i.e. walk by it ) but not safe to work in it for extended periods. No member of the public is anywhere near 1m to an antenna, also most of these antenna are radiating quiet low powers at any one time due to traffic volume in the cell so as a mobile network is quiet dynamic ( people moving around ) radiating power is quiet low most of the time ( at night, negligible users etc ).

With ref the dishes, these are point to point links, one dish is looking at another one somewhere else and it's basically a narrom beam so these pose no threat to public as they will never be near them really. The reason the dishes are big is that if it's a long distance to the other dish, bigger dish gives more signal gain ( it can see more of the signal ).

With regard the mobile phone, these are where the public are exposed most to radiation. As a call is being set up, there is a big burst of power just before the phone starts ringing to set up the call, then once the call is set up, the power drops off. Once the call is setup and user starts talking, you are essentially sticking your head into the radiation from the phone so this is when there cold be risk as the phone is essentially a transmitter aswell on a smaller scale to the antenna. Mobile phone can be considered a mobile antenna, as it's constantly communicating with the network even when not being used, it's a live piece of equipment.

The basestation gives off little or no radiation as all the RF is concentrated in the electronics and cabling etc, it's only when the signal reaches the antenna and broadcasted out is when it covers the area.

The main reason i wouldn't want a mast in my backyard would be due to house price reduction and eye sore. It's also worth bearing in mind that just because you dont see a mast, doesn't mean there's no antenna etc in the area. Take Dublin city for instance, no obvious visible masts but still coverage everywhere in Dublin city.

Few articles below to consider, comreg site gives you info of what / where sites are in an area etc.

Irish Communications regulator ComReg on Thursday published its first interim report on non-ionising radiation at mobile phone masts around the country. ComReg said that 100 sites have been checked by inspectors to determine if radiation levels exceeded regulatory limits. No sites were found to be in breach of limits and a further 300 sites will be checked over the coming months. "The results so far have not been surprising bearing in mind the work carried out previously by ComReg in auditing the operators' procedures and arrangements in relation to non-ionising radiation emissions," said outgoing ComReg chairperson Etain Doyle.

taken from link http://www.electricnews.net/frontpage/news-9382314.html

Recent Comreg survey also found that radiation from Irish masts are well below recommended radiation limits, comreg website has some good info, you can also check what masts, basestations etc are in your vicinity.

http://www.askcomreg.ie/mobile/View_Mobile_Sites.36.LE.asp

rogue-entity

Mobile phone masts in Ireland operate at on the 900 and 1800 bands. These frequencies are probably not high enough to cause any harm to people, even with prolonged exposure. 3G masts operate at 1900 and 2100. But again, the frequencies at the given power levels probably dont cause much harm to people.

The link dishes operate at 12GHz, stand in front of one of them, or cross the beam, and you will be very sick if not fried. These are the only danger really from these masts, and it is this that usually causes engineers to feel ill moreso then the antennas for the mobile phones themselves. Your own mobile phone can transmitt at nearly the same power level as the mast, remember it has to be able to send a signal for a number of miles in some cases. I did notice a slight headache after prolonged use of my old 3210, but newer phones have never caused me any problems.

The Doktor

rogue-entity wrote:

The link dishes operate at 12GHz, stand in front of one of them, or cross the beam, and you will be very sick if not fried. These are the only danger really from these masts, and it is this that usually causes engineers to feel ill moreso then the antennas for the mobile phones themselves..

Sorry, but this simply isnt true. As I said before, they transmit at really really low power. The only time they are even powered down is when a part is being replaced on them, and the main reason for this, is to prevent damage. But also because where the waveguide connects to the dish, or where the transmitting part connects to the dish all the power is concentrated in an area of about .5cm square, and who ever is working at this point will be looking directly at it.
The reason you do not stand infront of a dish is because you will block line of site and cause the link to fail.
Usual bands are between 7Ghz to 38Ghz with the main bands being 13Ghz, 15Ghz, 23Ghz and 38Ghz.

rogue-entity

Well this I was told by two engineers from Meteor who were at a local meeting here due to the GAA allowing a mast to be fitted to one of their light-poles without applying for planning permission or asking the rest of us here if it would be Okay to site a mast within a few hundred meters of a primary school and a nursing home. If anyone is vulnerable to the energy emitted from these masts, it is the very young and very old.

The Doktor

rogue-entity wrote:

Well this I was told by two engineers from Meteor ....

No offence ment to you in any way, but they were talkin out their rear end