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Community 8 Residents Want Erection Of Masts Stopped
Ghana Created: 16 Dec 2008
Residents of Tema Community 8 near the P road residential area have called on the Tema Metropolitan Assembly (TMA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to restrain a mobile telecommunications company from nstalling a communications mast over their houses because of the health hazards and dangers the masts will pose to them.

In a petition copied to the TMA and the EPA the residents entreated the regulatory bodies to come to their aid to save them from any future health problems.

According to them, reports obtained from scientific research indicate that such erected phone masts and towers are sources of harmful radioactive and electromagnetic emissions, which are harmful to individuals and communities who live near them.

Speaking on their behalf, Mr Joseph K. Okaikoi, also a resident, said they got up one morning only to find that trenches had been dug out. They returned from work another day to find a concrete platform mounted ready for the mast to be installed on it.

He said it was unfortunate that the communications company, which they did not know, could ignore their feelings and go ahead to do the concrete works.

Mr Okaikoi expressed the view that owners of the project could have moved the site some distance away from their residential areas as there was sufficient space for them to do that.

Now he claimed that owners of the houses could not enter their houses with their cars as they had been left with a small lane to use.

Mr Okaikoi appealed to the assembly to have the mast relocated before it becomes too late and to save them from future health hazards as a result of the radioactive and electromagnetic emissions from the mast.

He, however, said residents would advise themselves if their plea to the assembly and the EPA was not considered.

Efforts by the Daily Graphic to contact the metropolitan engineer on the issue were not successful but the Metropolitan Chief Executive, Mr David Quaye Annang, said he would call for the file and find out what actually happened.

An official of the Tema office of the EPA, Mr John Tettey, said he could not comment on the issue because some of the approvals did not come through the Tema office.

He said the problem started with the allocation of the plot and that often officials from the EPA only chanced on the masts and thereby got to know about them.

When the Daily Graphic went round, it came to light that masts were increasing in number in the metropolis with their red lights flashing at the top to signify their presence at night.
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Source: Graphic Ghana, Rose Hayford Darko, 16 Dec 2008

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