Ken's heart fears over new phone mast
A heart patient fears a mobile phone mast due to go up just metres from his Lincoln home will harm his health.
Ken Marsh, who wears a pacemaker, says he will continue to fight plans for the mast following a two-year wrangle.
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Ken Marsh.
In 2006 he wrote to Lincoln City Council objecting to proposals for the 12-metre high mast in Skellingthorpe Road, Lincoln.
But a "legal loophole" now means that company Vodafone can go ahead.
Mr Marsh (71) fears that emissions from the mast will interfere with his pacemaker or cause other health problems, such as cancer.
"Until someone comes up with some evidence to prove otherwise I will continue to worry that it will upset the settings on my pacemaker," said the retired engineer of Malham Drive, around 25 metres from the mast site.
The council had refused permission for the mast to go up on the Skellingthorpe Road junction with Farrington Crescent, but it failed to issue a 'refusal notice' to Vodafone, meaning it can still go ahead.
On Wednesday this week the authority's planning committee will be asked if it wants to ask the Government to force Vodafone to abandon its plans.
In a report to councillors, planning officers say the Government is unlikely to agree.
Vodafone spokesman Aileen Thompson said the company has published research on its website which showed that mobile phone technology, if used within certain thresholds, is safe.
For more on the phone mast story, plus views on whether they are a danger to health, see Monday's Echo.
19 Comments
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by vodafone user, Bassingham
Thursday, February 05 2009, 6:49PM
“The world is changing and mobile connectivity has lots of benefits and is a useful part of modern living. It gives us more flexibility and stops us wasting time when last minute plans change. Mobiles also provide added security for the younger generations and they are always contactable. There are masts all over the developed world with no issues reported. Lots of villages in Lincoln suffer from bad mobile connectivity and this mast will go towards improving people's quality of life. Flexible home working and kids security are the 2 important factors for me.”
by Rational, being rational, Lincoln
Wednesday, October 15 2008, 7:54PM
“The effect phone masts have on health has been shown to be psychosomatic; they installed a fake mast in a village, and waited for people to claim that it was making them sicker, and sure enough, they all claimed it was making them ill. Once they were told that it was a fake mast, many people refused to believe it, claiming that they had become more ill, therefore it must be a real mast.
Granted, this case is slightly different as the man in question has a pacemaker, which is a technological instument, and not an impressionable human mind, but I'm just trying to throw a little sense onto an issue which is more contraversial than the evidence permits.”
by Onlooker, looking on..
Tuesday, October 14 2008, 5:44PM
“'The Truth'. What I was trying to say to anon, an AUSTRALIAN commenter was; how can he claim our phone masts in the UK are potentially dangerous, when his country AUSTRALIA sells uranium to China. Uranium is much more dangerous than a phone mast. Kindly read ALL of my comments before making silly comments yourself. Or would you like me to make it even simpler for you?”
by Realist, Being Real
Tuesday, October 14 2008, 4:35PM
“I think Ken is right to be worried. I wouldn't want to live next door to a high powered mast kicking out a 1000 times more microwave radiation than my microwave oven. (Mast power is measured in Kilowatts, phones, PC's etc in Watts). A number of years ago everyone built stuff out of asbestos and they said that was safe. Yeah right ....”
by Swiss Frank, The Alps
Tuesday, October 14 2008, 3:26PM
“I would suspect that unless Ken takes it upon himself to attempt to scale the phone mast barehanded then probably the most danger this mast poses to his health is his ability to contain his excitement at seeing his name in the paper.”