The EMF Flood

Thankfully Trower wrote his report in language which made it comprehensible to a non-scientific reader and thus acted as a whistleblower for the police and the public alike. Trower believes that the Tetra system must never be used and gives the following dire predictions.

'I believe that the government, government scientists and (this industry) will be responsible for more civilian deaths in peacetime than all the terrorist organisations put together.'

Tetra was piloted in a few UK counties first early 2001 and soon police officers reported symptoms that included migraine, nausea, sleeplessness and lack of concentration. People living near the mast reported similar illness. An otherwise healthy motorcycle officer, suffered headaches and nosebleeds soon after being issued with his Tetra handset. He developed oesophageal cancer and died in the summer of 2004. Another police officer has also developed the same relatively unusual cancer. Senior police officers speaking only on condition of anonymity are acknowledging political pressure regarding this issue. Dr Mireille Levy, the Home Office health and safety officer for the system is reported to have said:

'Nothing will stop Tetra and if officers don't like it, they can resign.'

In response an officer asked who would be responsible if he contacted leukaemia. 'No one,' she replied. [5]

Well the public backlash has already started and the police are expressing concern about vigilante action and acts of vandalism where masts are being pulled down. There are also campaigns to stop masts being put up, with information being distributed on the Internet to help people fight local plans for new masts.[5] The nationwide campaign against Tetra is called Tetrawatch, which argues the system is untested because it is carries a pulsed signal which is different to Tetra systems in other countries. The British people have good memories and compare the current situation with assurances of safety by government scientists for the following scandals:

• Thalidomide
  
• Asbestoes
  
• BSE
  
• Smoking
  
• Sheep Dip
  
• Gulf War Syndrome
  
• GM Foods
  

One case that has been collected by Tetrawatch, which was reported in The Independent newspaper, November 2004 is one man who after months of sleepness nights and headaches decided to take a couple of metal plates and place them around his pillow to block out the signals from the transmitter close to his house.[6] As the mattress and the plates were earthed it worked. In a small local survey of more 400 people, 40% had suffered from sleeplessness and /or headaches since the mast arrival.

One of the major points for concern is that there has simple been no human safety risks that have been carried out relating to TERTA signals. This system is going nation-wide and a mast will be placed every 8 miles (13km) throughout the country. The UK government's own Trade and Industry Committee stated in a media release that

"we are very concerned that there seems to be no examination of the evidence on potentially adverse effects before bringing it into service…" [7]

Trower in his report to the Police Federation explains that he has scoured the research papers of top experts in their field, and that usually these can sometimes include hundreds of references. As many groups of scientists peer review each others research, he argues that the accumulative effort means that a research paper can represent 500 - 1,000 years of work. Trower emphasises that TETRA is pulsed and pulsed radiation is arguably more aggressive than the continuous analogue wave and as TETRA uses more power than the ordinary mobile so the symptoms will be enhanced rather than be reduced for TETRA. From this premise, he then documents why he thinks police officers will suffer the following effects:

'If an officer is sleeping in quarters within range of the TETRA transmitter, the microwave radiation is believed to act on the pineal gland and suppress the night-time melatonin to daytime levels; hence the good work of the melatonin at night will be restricted leading to suppression of the immune system.'

'...[It] could enhance breast cancer in the lady police officers.

'...There could be long-term damage to the eyes of the officers using TETRA.'

'...I am particularly concerned for the acutely sensitive brains and organs of the highly trained police dogs.'

'...TETRA affects the beta rhythm of the brain it will affect what the beta rhythm is responsible for; namely, sound judgement in emergency situations.

'...Following this research I fail to see how TETRA can possibly be safe for the officers which use it.

The statements are specifically related to police officers and police animals but these represent only a small number of the long lists of scientific concerns that have been linked to electromagnetic radiation and reported cases of cancer of the spine from officers who have carried their hand portables on their belts. The following explanation written by Trower, is a good non-scientific way to describe how electromagnetic waves can affect the information messaging system within the mind/body.

'We being water based animals act like aerials to these waves. As the waves go into our bodies an electric current is generated inside our bodies which is how aerials work; waves come in and electricity is generated. The electricity generated in our bodies like all electric currents goes to ground through our bodies and like all electric currents it takes the path of least resistance. Unfortunately the path of least resistance through our bodies, although only representing 10% of our pathways, carries 90% of our traffic rather like the M1 motorway. The traffic in our bodies, namely hormones, antibodies, neurotransmitters know where they are going because they also carry an electric charge. The hormones, antibodies and neurotransmitters know where to "get off" because there is a corresponding opposite charge at the site of delivery rather like the positive and negative ends of a battery. The problem is if you have an electric current passing through the body it can change this charge, either on the hormones, antibodies or neurotransmitters or the site of delivery.

'An analogy to that would be - if you were in Paris on the Underground system and you could not speak a word of French, but you had a map with the station name of where to get off and somebody tippexed out one or two of the letters, you may get off or you may not, and this can happen in the body. The hormones, antibodies or neurotransmitters may get off where they are meant to get off or they may carry on and miss their target. As a one-off this probably would not be very important but continuous interference over many years it is argued can lead to many illnesses.

'A similar effect is that the destination for some of these hormones, neurotransmitters, antibodies is a surface of a cell where chemicals will pass through a membrane into a cell. If you think of a cell in our body, be it a brain cell, bone cell etc, as having a positive and negative charge on the outside and the inside similar to a battery the difference in these charges will draw the chemical into the cell or draw poisonous substances out of the cell. If the charge is changed on the outside of the cell, then necessary chemicals may not go in or poisonous chemicals may not go out. An analogy to that would be - think of your house as a cell in your body. Essential things like food, water and fuel come into the house and poisonous things like waste and gases leave the house. In fact a house is very similar in many ways to a cell in our body. Now, if we had a blockage and waste could not leave the house or sometimes food or electricity did not come into the house, over a short period of time we would survive this, but continual disruption over many years will probably have a knock-on effect on the health of the inhabitants particularly if they are young or frail. This is my explanation of how electromagnetic waves affect our cells.'

I few other statement that have left an impression from this report are as follows:

'...There are unknown phenomena concerning low level radiation that is not generally understood by the users of communication instruments. Following the Chernobyl incident it was found that long-term continuous low level radiation of all types was as dangerous as high level doses of radiation. With high level doses of radiation the anti-oxidants in the body (Vitamins A, C, E etc) rush to defend and repair the area of the body being damaged. However with low level radiation the anti-oxidants are not activated and because the dose is accumulative the problems can build up and are usually present before the body realises that there is trouble. So, low level does not necessarily mean safer. Also the smaller you are the more you tend to absorb. Wavelengths for TETRA and mobile phones are relatively short and the nearer the part of the body or the infant to the wavelength the more similarity they have to an aerial and the more they absorb. With ordinary mobiles the wavelength is around the size of a foetus and with TETRA you are looking at a 3-6 year old child. I mention this because TETRA may be used in areas where children are running around and there are very well known and documented cases of pulse radiation affecting epileptic children.'

'... In an exclusive report in the Manchester News 11 May 2001 Dianne Bourne quoting the Head of Brain Surgery at NASA writes "the Head of Brain Surgery at NASA has even said he would not consider holding one of these to his head (with regards to TETRA). He said the net result is that the police are guinea pigs".'