«Latest  ‹Forward   News item: 3707  Back›  Oldest» 

Glastonbury and Leyland, Lancashire : “Wi-fi is making us all sick. We must ban it”
United Kingdom Created: 9 Jan 2009
A TOWN'S residents claim they are suffering panic attacks, skin rashes, headaches and dizziness since the streets there became one of Britain's first wireless internet zones.
Campaigners claim the electronic smog from six antennae installed around Glastonbury, Somerset, which have been pumping out microwave radiation for the last seven months, has harmed the health of 40 per cent of the town's 10,000 population.
Council leaders spent £30,000 putting in the town-wide Wi-fi system thinking it would help local businesses and tourism.
But some locals say they have been so badly affected by symptoms - that also include attacks of nausea, sudden sweating or extreme fatigue - they can no longer walk in the town. Others have even chosen to move away.
Psychologist Lynda Kane, 58, and her husband Stephen, 52, have set up home 6,000 miles away in San Francisco because they felt so ill after the Wi-fi system was installed by Somerset County Council.
"1 thought my menopause was coming back," said Lynda.
"I was very fuzzy headed and fatigued and someone told me about the mast that had been put up about 20 yards from our front door. Before we left we were staying in B&Bs over the hill where the signal wasn't so strong. We noticed an immediate change."
Natalie Fee. 30, is another Glastonbury resident to quit the town centre. She now lives in a new home out of the wi-ft area because of fears for the health of her five-year-old son Elliot.
"I don't want my son exposed to risk 24 hours a day, including at his primary school which is in the Wi-fi zone," said Natalie.
"There are a lot of parents who are concerned that their children are being experimented with and they don't have a choice in the matter. Nobody said "your school is going to be in the wi-fi zone' especially with the children living in the Wi-fi zone there really wasn't enough consultation.
•'I would like to see the masts removed. Perhaps one day that will happen and hopefully it won't be too late."' Somerset County Council will review whether to keep the Glastonbury system at a meeting later this month.
A council spokesman said: "We will always take safely concerns seriously, but are completely confident that the Wi-fi project poses no health risk to anyone in Glastonbury."
Town and city-wide Wi-fi systems are being planned all over the UK.
Norwich became the first to install one in 2006, another is currently operating along Brighton beach - despite opposition from the local Friends of the Earth, group in the south-coast resort.

Plans to install a £60,000 system in Leyland, Lancashire, were delayed by South Ribble Council last month so that further research into the health risks can be done after a one-woman campaign by resident Margaret White.
"If it is introduced into the town it is going to be going into everybody's homes. Some people are absolutely fine with that, but some people have problems," said Mrs White.
She says a number of European health reports have recommended councils lower the levels of radiation from Wi-fi masts.
South Ribble Council will now make a final decision on whether to give Leyland's Wi-fi scheme the go-ahead later this year.
Member Cliff Hughes said: "In community use there are more than 10,000 Wi-fi systems in the UK in public places such as restaurants, hotels, cafes and airports.
"The debate on how wi-fi impacts on people's health has been studied for many years. The World Health Organisation says that there are no adverse health effects from low-level, long-term exposure. The Government also says there is no risk."
But a spokesman for Mast Sanity, a group which campaigns for safe mobile communications systems, said: "We think the Wi-fi in Glastonbury should be removed instantly. In the long term, there's evidence that the frequency used can lead to DNA damage and cancer."
Last June, four libraries in Paris unplugged their Wi-fi systems after health complaints from staff.
By Amy Fallen and David Paul For the SUNDAY EXPRESS
Source: Margaret White

«Latest  ‹Forward   News item: 3707  Back›  Oldest»