Woman erects metal curtain to shield home from mobile phone mast

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Thursday, November 05, 2009
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This is Staffordshire

DISABLED Nancy Watts lives in a bungalow covered in steel mesh after claiming a mobile phone mast at the end of her garden has left her in a wheelchair.

Former IT consultant Nancy, aged 54, spends most of her time confined to a tiny room at the back of her home to try to avoid the mast just 20ft from her front window.

Fears over electro-magnetic currents from the mast mean Nancy and husband Phillip, aged 56, have spent £1,500 protecting the building with ground-to-roof cladding.

Their small back room has also been converted into a 'Faraday cage', covered wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling in steel mesh sheets, to block out all electrical currents and they sleep under a mesh tent above their bed.

Nancy has had Multiple Sclerosis (MS) since 1985 and suffered only three relapses in 11 years.

But after moving to Ashley Heath, near Loggerheads, in 1996 she began suffering several relapses a year and has been in a wheelchair since 2001. Mobile phone companies started using the existing electricity pylon in late 1996 for their transmitters.

She said: "There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that the mast has caused these complications.

"Having to live with metal mesh around us is devastating."

Nancy says she cannot spend more than a couple of hours outside the cage without feeling disorientated and losing feeling in her limbs.

Her husband complains of electro-sensitivity, which causes him pain.

Professor Clive Hawkins, a clinical neurologist at Keele University Medical School and the University Hospital of North Staffordshire, who has treated Nancy, said: "There is good reason to believe that the electro-magnetic current disturbs the barrier between blood and brain, and blood and spinal cord.

"This is an important part of MS, the barrier breaks down and so proteins and antibodies enter the spinal cord or brain and cause inflammation."

Mobile mast has ruined my life: Page 6

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  • Profile image for This is Staffordshire

    by dave, stoke

    Tuesday, November 10 2009, 2:26PM

    “The people that leave nasty comments without leaving a name probably work for mobile companies, the point the story makes, is that the planning sytem does not take heath into consideration, and ICNIRP safety levels only protect against short term heating and electrical nerve stimulation, and do not cover long term exposure.
    recent statement made at conference by independent scientists. in Brasil.
    We are concerned about the body of evidence that indicates that
    exposure to electromagnetic fields
    interferes with basic human biology and may increase the risk of
    cancer and other chronic diseases. The
    exposure levels at which these effects have been observed are many
    times lower than the standards
    promulgated by the International Commission for Non-Ionizing radiation
    Protection (ICNIRP) [4] and the
    IEEE's International Committee on Electromagnetic Safety (ICES) [5].
    These standards are obsolete and
    were derived from biological effects of short-term high intensity
    exposures that cause health effects by
    temperature elevation and nerve excitation discovered decades ago.
    Recent research indicates that
    electromagnetic fields could cause detrimental health effects even at
    very low levels of exposure. The
    ICNIRP and IEEE/ICES standards are being supported and promoted by
    interested parties to avoid
    precautionary technical planning, precautionary laws, and
    precautionary advice to the public.
    We are deeply concerned that current uses of non-ionizing radiation
    for mobile phones, wireless
    computers and other technologies place at risk the health of children
    and teens, pregnant women, seniors
    and others who are most vulnerable due to age or disability, including
    a health condition known as
    electromagnetic hypersensitivity.

    Ever wondered why industry funded studies show No Effect, aand Independent ones Do show effects,”

  • Profile image for This is Staffordshire

    by Andrew Woodvine, Talke Pits

    Monday, November 09 2009, 8:23AM

    “LOL.

    What's the "good reason" Professor Hawkins?”

  • Profile image for This is Staffordshire

    by Jason Massey, Crewe

    Friday, November 06 2009, 8:56PM

    “I am a member of the campaign group No2O2, and Nancy and her husband kindly did a presentation at our last public meeting.

    There has been thousands of studies carried out linking health issues with mobile phone technology, interphone study has just been released that links mobile phones to 4 separate forms of cancer.

    But cancer is perhaps not the real issue, other health issues include. Effects on immune system, sleeping problems, alteration of the electric fields of the brain, effects on fertility, DNA being altered genetic chain, Alzheimer's, just some.

    Be aware that mobile phone companies must insure against themselves, companies such as Lloyds will not insure them.

    Food for thought. The background radiation of 3G alone is one million billion times more than the background of the normal planet. This is quoted from Professor Olisonce Johnansson of Karolinska Institute Sweden. Life on the planet has been evolving for 3.8 billion years, life (including human) does not have any shield for this increased level of man made radiation.”

  • Profile image for This is Staffordshire

    by June, Newcastle

    Friday, November 06 2009, 9:24AM

    “I quote
    'But after moving to Ashley Heath, near Loggerheads, in 1996 she began suffering several relapses a year and has been in a wheelchair since 2001. Mobile phone companies started using the existing electricity pylon in late 1996 for their transmitters.'

    The word to look out for is EXISTING.

    So this couple moved next to an already standing electrical pylon now being used by mobile phone companies as a transmitter...makes sense saves them putting another mast up.

    Now complaining about it.

    Sorry but they seem a bit dense to me and before anyone says she was an IT consultant she isn't the only one. She worked in technology now complaining about another form of it.

    With all that useless metal surrounding her home let us hope no lightning strikes.

    Mind you it could be useful as one big aerial.

    ET should send a signal anytime.”

  • Profile image for This is Staffordshire

    by McAnon, Stoke

    Friday, November 06 2009, 8:42AM

    “You are being Nefarious now.

    LOL.”

  • Profile image for This is Staffordshire

    by Anon, Stoke

    Friday, November 06 2009, 8:38AM

    “m.mcguinness
    michael, burslem

    It should be,

    M. McGuinness
    Michael, Burslem.

    "you see ..,i have the integrity to put my name on my posts ! "

    LOL.

    Anon, Stoke.
    NOT An Ignoramus.”

  • Profile image for This is Staffordshire

    by McAnon, Stoke

    Friday, November 06 2009, 8:17AM

    “Confused, SoT
    What the " former IT consultant" / Domestic engineer ? housewife needs is a Space consultant ? Estate agent so that she can move on too somewhere else.
    It must be terrible for her Vision clearance engineer ? window cleaner with all that metal on the windows not to mention her Environment improvement technician ? cleaner with all that metal to clean.
    So Confused, SoT,
    You can dress a lot of job titles up, So just what is a IT consultant ? , that makes them immune to being silly.”

  • Profile image for This is Staffordshire

    by Anon, Loggerheads

    Friday, November 06 2009, 1:48AM

    “I live close to Loggerheads so can comment on the tower concerned. The tower in question is a communications tower NOT a pylon. The tower has been there since around 1959 -1960. The bungalow was built around the late 80's I think. The tower was there when they bought / built the property. Ok the phone companies were not using the mast then, I think it was used just by the electricity company and a few others maybe water? I often walk my dogs up the public footpath and rough roadway over the top of the hill past the mast. I have never experienced any side effects when passing the mast.
    It seems Knighton Norton in hales and Logger heads has now become the NIMBY capital of Staffordshire, NO to wind farms NO to phone masts, what a wonderful picture it paints of the people who live in this area. Thankfully we are not all the same; I welcome new technology including wind farms like many others but unfortunately we were silenced during the recent campaigns!
    This story has been running for years now both in the papers and on TV. If I lived there and it affected my family, I should have moved instantly instead of moaning for what now seems to have been years, no doubt this is in hope of some kind of compo. The property is probably valued far less than market value due to close proximity to the tower. Having advertised this due to the amount of free press coverage I imagine it would be far more difficult to move the house now? My advice move if it¿s such a problem my families health and well being would always come first.”

  • Profile image for This is Staffordshire

    by Jim, Lightwood

    Thursday, November 05 2009, 8:33PM

    “Tim - don't you mean metally unstable?”

  • Profile image for This is Staffordshire

    by Tim, Stoke

    Thursday, November 05 2009, 6:58PM

    “This woman seems to be mentally unstable to me and needs help.”

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