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Click here to sign a petition to South African Minister Edna Molewa
Following a leukemia cluster around antennae on a water tower in Bayville, NY a lawsuit was filed after 3 children at the adjacent school died of leukemia. This story has parallels with a school in Spain where 100 cases of cancer were reported in a triangle formed by 3 cellphone towers 200m apart [source].
In February 2009, residents successfully sued the telecom company Bouygues Telecom claiming adverse health effects from the radiation emitted by mobile phone antenna and the company was ordered by the court to remove the mobile phone mast. (Versailles Court of Appeal, 4 February 2009)
And in another contraversial lawsuit, in April 2011 the Supreme Court of Italy ordered Vatican Radio to compensate the small town of Cesano following allegations that "the broadcaster's high-powered, inappropriately sited, AM/FM transmitters put children at a higher risk of cancer". According to a 300 page report by Italy's most prestigious cancer research hospital, “There has been an important, coherent and meaningful correlation between exposure to Vatican Radio’s structures and the risk of leukaemia and lymphoma in children.” The report also stated that there were risks of dying form cancer for people who had resided at least 10 years within a 9km radius of the radio’s giant antenna towers near Cesano." [source]
According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, at the turn of the last century the effects of ionizing radition weren't known at that time. "Basically, we have learned through observation. When people first began working with radioactive materials, scientists didn't understand radioactive decay, and reports of illness were scattered. As the use of radioactive materials and reports of illness became more frequent, scientists began to notice patterns in the illnesses. People working with radioactive materials and x-rays developed particular types of uncommon medical conditions. For example, scientists recognized as early at 1910 that radiation caused skin cancer. Scientists began to keep track of the health effects, and soon set up careful scientific studies of groups of people who had been exposed."
This is not dissimilar to the process we find ourselves in today as around the globe concerned communities are now taking action in the face of increasing ill-health and death. This website was formed by a group of neighbours in Constantia, Cape Town strongly opposed to two cellmast applications in the area which are less than 50m from some homes and in close proximity to schools. We've been well supported by other institutions and South African opposition groups and hope that this centralisation of the research we've come across to date will be of value to other communities in a similar situation.
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As further background to the petition to our minister, in June this year our South African government received a letter from Professor Johannson at one of Europe's largest medical universities, the Karolinska Institute, calling for further inquiry and investigation. [source]
And in the same month, a fact sheet from the World Health Organisation said "given the large number of mobile phone users, it is important to investigate, understand and monitor any potential public health impact".
But a response received from the Minister of Health at the National Assembly states, "there are no real health threats", "there is no need for a 'minimum buffer zone'" and "we have not commissioned any research into the effects of radiation from cellphone base stations and masts, because this type of research typically requires huge resources in terms of funds, personnel and expertise."