Not a subject that you would usually associate with political correctness I hear you say! That is true but the reason I am including a page on this controversial subject is because the protest movement against the masts does seem to attract the same kind of 'politically correct' people and because their actions fulfil reason 6) of my definition of politically correct behaviour. That is 'what you do has the effect of making the problem you were trying to cure far worse!'
First of all there is absolutely no evidence to suggest that the energy levels associated with mobile phones do any harm at all. The UK body responsible for assessing this is the National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB). Levels around phone masts are usually a very small percentage of the internationally accepted guidelines.
The BBC and the ITA have many TV transmitters around the country that transmit effective radiated powers of one million watts. Their aerials are usually mounted on masts several hundred feet high but with that level of power they produce field strengths on the ground much higher than a typical phone mast does and over a much greater distance. If there was any truth in the charge that high field strengths produce brain tumours then it would have become glaringly obvious in the last 60 years, which is the length of time the TV transmitters have been operating. Clusters of tumours would be apparent around all the BBC and ITA transmitter sites all over the country.
Now the field strength drops off fairly rapidly as you move away from an aerial. It follows an inverse square law - that is if you double the distance away then the field strength drops to one quarter of what it was. But most people hold the phone to their ear and the aerial is pressed against their head producing a relatively high field strength in the brain tissue. This level is much, much higher than you would get living under a phone mast and may be more of a matter for concern, particularly in children.
However when the phone communicates with the phone mast, for technical reasons the transmitter at the mast issues instructions to the phone to reduce its power transmitted to the lowest level consistent with the mast receiving the signal level it requires. So the closer the phone is to a mast, the lower the level of field strength in the users brain tissue.
Hence by opposing the building of masts, the protesters are making the perceived problem they were trying to cure actually far worse. Hence the connection with political correctness. In my own experience, they are mostly the same people anyway!
(Please don't email me saying I don't know what I am talking about. I have been involved with radio for the last 45 years and no, I don't sell phones either!)
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