Activists ask for tighter controls on phone towers

A woman surnamed Kuo holds up her father's photo in front of the Executive Yuan yesterday to protest against the government's failure to regulate electromagnetic waves. Kuo says her father died of cancer after cellphone towers emitting electromagnetic waves were installed by a local church near their home in Chiayi City.
PHOTO: LIU HSIN-DE, TAIPEI TIMES

More than 20 environmental protection activists petitioned the Executive Yuan yesterday, requesting the government lay out stricter measures regulating electromagnetic waves (EMW).

"The regulations governing EMW are not strict enough. Unfortunately, the government will not do anything about it," said Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華), chairwoman of the Taiwan Environmental Protection Union.

"As there are an increasing number of cellphone towers, the electromagnetic waves are getting stronger in the environment. It is quite ridiculous that the government is now planning to establish more than 10,000 WiMAX towers before we have laws for EMW related issues," she added.

WiMAX stands for "worldwide interoperability for microwave access." It aims to provide wireless data over long distances, in a variety of different ways, from point to point links to full mobile cellular type access.

In its petition, the union submitted five requests.

It asked the National Communications Commission not to issue operating licenses for any WiMAX towers before the government guarantees that their EMW are harmless and requested that existing cellphone towers decrease their strength to six volts per meter.

Those aged 16 and below must not be allowed to use cellphones, the group suggested.

The group also asked the government to postpone the establishment of campus wireless Internet networks before the technology is proved to be harmless and relocate cellphone towers, power stations and high-voltage power line towers away from campuses, residential areas and hospitals.

The union provided a list of people who had died of cancers, which they alleged were related to EMW pollution.

The union said that the people lived close to Chianan Church in Chiayi City, which has a large cellphone tower on its roof.

The statistics provided by the group showed that 12 residents died of cancer between 2004 and this May.

"There is insufficient evidence to prove that these residents died from the effects of electromagnetism, but no one can guarantee that their cancer had nothing to do with it either," Chen said.
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．Electromagnetic hazards protested

2007/6/2 The China Post staff
Protesters organized by the Taiwan Environmental Protection Union (TEPU) staged another public demonstration in Taipei yesterday to demand that the government withhold issuing new licenses for telecommunications base stations.
People from various places around Taiwan and offshore islands gathered in front of the Executive Yuan (Cabinet) to protest the government plan of issuing licenses for setting up WiMAX stations before the concerns about hazards from electromagnetic waves are cleared.

The protesters included victims of diseases triggered from the electromagnetic waves and survivors of families that have had members already die of related illnesses.

They said at a public hearing held at the Legislative Yuan that the National Communications Commission (NCC) under the Cabinet must not give out licenses to erect stations for

WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) services before concrete security and environmental evaluation are conducted.

It is unacceptable that the Cabinet has allocated a huge fund of tens of billions of New Taiwan dollars for such projects while people in advanced nations have stepped up opposition to the building of such facilities, they said.

The electromagnetic wave hazards in Taiwan are much worse as the risks to human body are many times higher than in advanced nations due to the ubiquitous base stations, according to lawmaker Tien Chiu-chin of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party and Chen Shu-hua, a researcher at the TEPU.

Other major demands the put forward included the setting of safer electromagnetic wave standards, enacting new regulations to ban the use of mobile phones by people under age 16, and conducting a sweeping safety evaluation of wireless access to Internet on campus before expanding the system.

The government should also prohibit the erection of cellular phone base stations, electric transformer stations and high-voltage power cables near residential areas and schools, they said.

Before prompting government agencies to implement the safety measures, they suggested that people should take steps for their own good.

People may get information and knowledge about the hazards from electromagnetic waves from the Web site htttp://edb.epa.gov.tw/index._eme.htm of the Environmental Protection Administration or the www.tepu.org.tw set up by the TEPU.

Information concerning the locations of the existing base stations is also available.

The branch offices of the TEPU has instruments available on loan for people who want to measure the levels of electromagnetic waves in their apartments or neighborhoods.

Executives at some real estate agencies said consumers should also gather the data from the Web sites before they decide to purchase new apartments.

Other options include checking with security guards or the management committees of residential buildings for the relevant data about possible hazards exceeding healthy standards.

The prices for apartments 100 meters within the vicinity of telecommunications base stations are normally 10 to 20 percent lower than the market prices because of concerns of potential customers, they said.

They added that realty agencies normally shun the cases of selling housing units severely affected by electromagnetic wave hazards to avoid possible legal disputes.