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Dublin maps its phone masts
Ireland Created: 5 Sep 2005
Dublin maps its phone masts

THE location of mobile phone masts in Dublin has been published for the first time by Dublin city council, allowing residents concerned about radiation to check the proximity of antennae.
The new database reveals the Wax museum, the Ormond hotel and the Vicar Street venue as city-centre buildings hosting masts.
ComReg, the state regulator of the electronic communications industry, refused to disclose where the masts were located on the grounds that it was commercially sensitive information.
Each operator is required by law to notify local authorities of the erection of antennae exempt from planning permission.
But health campaigners believe phone companies don’t always comply. “Under an FOI (Freedom of Information) application, I discovered that until October 2004, Meath county council had not received one exemption notification from any operators,” said Don MacAuley, a campaigner with Masts Action In Meath.
Enda Dalton, technical adviser to the Irish Doctors’ Environmental Association, welcomed Dublin council’s decision to publish the list.
The council’s website discloses the exact addresses of all antennae exempt from planning permission.
Phone companies said they were happy for the information to be published. “If any of the local authorities want to make the information on exempted masts public, we don’t object. As far as we’re concerned, our dealings are completely transparent,” said Johanna Cassells, head of corporate affairs at O2.
In May, the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications recommended that the monitoring of masts should be vested in the Radiological Protection Institute of Ireland.
“It would be better housed under that body, for the reason that ComReg aren’t equipped to monitor masts, they have to buy in expertise,” said Noel O’Flynn TD.
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Source: The Sunday Times. Kate Butler. Sept. 04, 2005

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