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Thank you for your letter dated 19 August 2003 on behalf of Dr Grahame Blackwell of Lustleigh, Devon, regarding TETRA health issues.
Mr Blackwell questions my assessment of current scientific research on the possible effects of TETRA signals on intracellular calcium efflux. I refer Mr Blackwell to the report published by the National Radiological Protection Board's independent Advisory Group on Nonionising Radiation (AGNIR) on "Possible health effects from TETRA". The report is available at http://www.nrpb.org.uk. I must point out that the work carried out by Dstl for the Home Office on calcium efflux is monitored by worldclass independent experts and is undergoing the usual international scientific peer review process through conferences and publications in refereed journals. I have no reason to doubt the integrity and rigour of this evaluation process.
I must stress again that TETRA masts do not pulse. This has been confirmed by Professor Challis, who has taken over from Lord Stewart as chair of the Mobile Telecommunications and Health research programme committee. The power spectrum of the signal transmitted from TETRA base stations is essentially continuous, although it does exhibit a very weak component at 16.64 Hz (sic), which contains less than 1% of the energy of the signal.
The TETRA standard was developed over 10 years ago and has been implemented in a number of countries. Airwave is by no means the first TETRA system to have been deployed. In the UK for example, the Dolphin private mobile radio system is a TETRA system which has been operating since 1999 and has many thousands of users. The longterm health monitoring study we have recently commissioned will provide much needed data on a statistically significant number of TETRA users and has the full support of the Police Federation.
I hope this information is helpful.
(Signed ‘Yours Hazel’)
HAZEL BLEARS
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