News for Liechtenstein

Will Liechtenstein call time on the mobile industry?
Liechtenstein Created: 3 Dec 2009
One of Europe's smallest sovereign states might be about to become the first country in the world to turn its back on mobile communications, depending on the results of a referendum to be held this week.

Liechtenstein's population this week gets the chance to vote on whether to overturn the Environmental Protection Law introduced in May 2008. Article 34 of the law includes the provision that “The holder of base station sites are due to take all appropriated arrangements in order to technically keep the electromagnetic field as low as possible in order to have the regulation reduction to be feasible and reached by the end of 2012, which will be an real mean of electromagnetic fields limited to 0.6 V/m [volts per metre]”.

By way of comparison, the major European countries including the UK, France, Spain and Germany set a limit of 41 V/m; neighbouring Switzerland sets a limit of 6 V/m, the same standard to which Liechtenstein has hitherto adhered. The proposed reduction therefore reduces the permitted base station exposure by a factor of 90%. The Swiss regulations already make it difficult for operators in that country to effectively roll out their networks.

The 41 V/m limit is based on the recommendations of the World Health Organization. The figure of 0.6 V/m is cited in 'The BioInitiative Report', published by a group of independent scientists and health professionals in September 2007, where it is proposed as a “recommended cautionary target level”.

Surprisingly, Liechtenstein (population 35,000 and area 160 sq km) has four mobile operators. All have submitted reports to the government stating that they will not be able to comply with the new limit. One, Orange, has said that it may close down its network if the legislation is allowed to stand.

Liechtenstein's Chamber of Commerce and Industry campaigned for the new Environmental Law to be set aside. The Liechtenstein government agreed, but this was rejected by the national parliament, and this in turn has led to the referendum, which seeks to overturn the law.

A victory for the campaigners for stricter limits will have implications for operators in other countries
It would be easy to dismiss the events in Liechtenstein as a storm in a Ruritanian tea cup. Liechtenstein is a very small country, with an unusual constitution. It is not part of the EU, and the build-up to the new law and the consequent referendum has passed almost unnoticed by much of the mobile industry.

Nevertheless, if the new Environmental Protection Law stands then it will encourage anti-mast campaigners across Europe to renew their efforts. It will also raise the status of the scientist 'outsiders' whose work informs the theoretical basis for the legislation. They will now be able to point to a proper parliament that appears to have considered the evidence and acted on their advice. Although the BioInitiative Report has been criticised as unscientific and partial by authorities in Australia, Germany and the Netherlands, it has also been cited in debates about emissions in France, the European Parliament, and lately in Belgium, which is now moving towards an emissions threshold of 3 V/m.

The next domino to fall might be France, where a government-led 'round table' process is reconsidering existing emissions limits and has called for city administrations to apply to take part in a trial of 0.6 V/m limits.

Related news:
Oct 2009, Liechtenstein: Great news from Lichtenstein!
Sep 2009, Liechtenstein: Liechtenstein to vote on mobile phone masts
May 2009, Liechtenstein: Liechtenstein wants to impose a strict emission threshold
Sep 2008, Liechtenstein: Liechtenstein adopts BioInitiative guidelines - Telecoms in panic.
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Source: Telecoms and Software news, Jeremy Green, 02 Dec 2009

Great news from Lichtenstein!
Liechtenstein Created: 3 Oct 2009
The Leichtenstein parliament has confirmed its intention to enforce the (in sensitive areas: homes, workplaces, schools, hospitals and other public buildings) to 0.6 V/m from mobile telecommunication base stations.
This was met with dismay by the telecommunications industry, who have stated that this will make it unfeasible to run a financially viable mobile phone service under these restrictions.
The goal is meant to be met by 2013, but the industries are expected to provide an annual progress report towards the goal as well.
The 4 main mobile phone companies based in Leichtenstein have threatened to pull out of the country if this restriction is not lifted, to which the government has responded by exploring the possibility of running a state owned mobile telecommunication network if they were to do so! (courtesy of powerwatch.org.uk).
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Source: ÁS/Agnes Ingvarsdóttir mast-victims.org

Liechtenstein to vote on mobile phone masts
Liechtenstein Created: 17 Sep 2009
The hotly debated issue of mobile phone masts is to be put to the vote in Liechtenstein, where business lobbies have challenged a parliamentary ruling on the matter.

Parliamentarians voted last year to reduce the voltage of the masts (radiation output) from 6 volts per square metre to 0.6.

Opponents say that’s led major phone companies to pull out of the principality, and are calling for the voltage to be brought back to 6, in line with Switzerland.

Liechtenstein’s voters will have the final say.

Related news:
May 2009, Liechtenstein: Liechtenstein wants to impose a strict emission threshold
Sep 2008, Liechtenstein: Liechtenstein adopts BioInitiative guidelines - Telecoms in panic.
Click here to view the source article.
Source: World Radio Switzerland, 17 Sep 2009

Liechtenstein wants to impose a strict emission threshold
Liechtenstein Created: 24 May 2009
35 000 inhabitants wedged between Switzerland and Austria, best known for the hospitality of its financial industry, the Principality has decided to dictate its law to mobile operators. By adopting, on 29 May 2008, a law on environmental protection,
the Parliament of Vaduz gave four years to manufacturers to comply with new regulations particularly restrictive: an emission rate of relay antennas limited to 0 , 6 volts per meter (V / m).

Since then, nothing is more between the ages of mobile telephony - including Swisscom and Orange - and Liechtenstein. A test of force is committed, the first round will be played between May 27 and 30 at the next parliamentary session. To this date, twenty-five members of the parliament will examine the reports submitted their operators - in accordance with the law - on the
implementation of this threshold. And their conclusions are not in the sense intended by the principality.

"In these circumstances, it will not be possible to operate a mobile network," explains Christian Neuhaus, spokesman for Swisscom, which the firm has "stopped investing in the country for a good year." "Economically and technically, this threshold of 0.6 V / m is" impossible, "says Mr. Neuhaus yet. The landscape - literally - would be disfigured, "It takes 150 to 200
more branches." This threshold, which nobody has yet experienced in the world, is claimed by the French associations who have asked, unsuccessfully, to be tested in several cities of France.

THE "BIG BROTHER" SWITZERLAND
What fly has stung therefore parliamentarians Liechtenstein? They decided to have, as the "big brother" of Switzerland, a new law on environmental protection. Waste management, protection against noise, air pollution, electromagnetic waves, use of fertilizers, genetically modified organisms (GMOs): all is past. But while the emission limits for relay antennas in Switzerland are already ten times more restrictive than the international level (6 V / m as against 40 to 60 V / m in Europe) and that no coastal
requested, the Liechtenstein has decided, under the leadership of its three Greens members, "to go further," says the director of the Office for the Protection of the Environment of Liechtenstein, Helmut Kindle.
The bill specifies that "the owners of a facility are required, using appropriate measures to lower the effective power of the field to the lowest technically feasible and, by late 2012, d achieve an average power of the field of 0.6 V / m ".
The parliamentary session promises to be animated. Car Pepo Frick, only elected Green Landtag since the January elections, is sticking to his guns: "I'll fight. As a physician, I believe that the precautionary principle is more important for business operators." Their threats do not impress: "Those who have submitted their reports to Parliament say it is impossible to reach
an emission of 0.6 V / m. But there may be others who are able. " And public opinion? What people want is to continue to call. "This may not be possible in garages and cellars, but it is still possible," says he.
Moved by the same spirit of resistance, both sides prefer not to prejudge the issue: "Everything is open," explains Mr. Pepo. "Everything is possible," adds Swisscom.
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Source: LE MONDE, 22 may 2009

Liechtenstein adopts BioInitiative guidelines - Telecoms in panic.
Liechtenstein Created: 16 Sep 2008
Improving public sanitation from artificial microwave radiation of the population by Wi-Fi connections and especially the radiation from mobile phones.
Liechtenstein, which until now was applying the standards coming from the WHO recommendations (M. Repacholi), from ICNIRP and repeated under the normative reference 1999/519/CE that means the same as those opposable in France coming from the scandalous 2002-775 decree supported particularly by AFSSET (Health Authority France) (41 V/m for 900 MHz, 58 V/m for 1800 MHz and 61 V/m for UMTS) is just reducing these limits by 90% or in other words to near 10 times! Essentially however the positive projection is the 4th paragraph of the 34th article of the new law that anticipates the transition to a limit of 0.6V/m, or 100 times lower than the actual peak limits of maximum power in 2012 for all interference merged sources,

This according to temporary recommendations of BioInitiative Scientific Consortium report.
Next-up Organisation considers that in France those who guaranty or oppose the actual regular limits in artificial microwave high frequencies for what concerns the radiation of the population with mobile phone apparatus and installations (relay antennas, hertz repeaters, …) in 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2150 MHz (UMTS) frequencies and above in GHz, with unreal regulation limits in particular of 61 V/m are either betrayers, irresponsible, idiots or acting the fool who, we have no doubt about it, will have to explain themselves in Court of justice. If anyone does not agree with this public sanitary appreciation, including Health Ministers, we are pleased.

NOTE: 61 V/m = 1 000 µW/cm² 0,6 V/m = 0,1 µW/cm² That is to say a radiation power reduction of 10.000 times less !
In order to take a step forward a new strategy with well targeted actions is necessary. We must bring an action in justice.
Next-up Organisation needs your help to fund the legal procedure. Thank you. We call on everyone for funding. Please Help Next-up Organization !
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Source: Next-Up, 15 Sep 2008

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