WEEP
The Canadian Initiative to stop
Wireless Electrical and
Electromagnetic Pollution.
Stavanger has broken the Plan- and building law by introducing a wireless network in the town centre. This is the opinion of Norway's Environmental Safety Association, (NMF) which has now reported the council to the police.
Last week the wireless network in Stavanger town centre was turned on, and this allows you to turn on your computer and log on to the Internet more or less everywhere in the town centre.
NMF thinks the decision to make the town-centre wireless has been too hasty.
"People's health problems have not been taken into account at all. People are subject to the wireless network without the opportunity to protect themselves. We see a police report as the only possibility to state our case and to protect those who require it," says Sissel Halmøy, field manager for the electro-magnetic field of NMF.
Health problems
In the police report, NMF refers to the Plan- and building law, where matters which can have a significant effect on the environment, nature resources or society are examined. Programs and plans should be processed and made public, before resolutions are made.
NMF says that Stavanger council has not done so in this case.
In the police report, NMF refers to the work of world-leading scientists and researchers who have dealt with over 2000 scientific reports on the electromagnetic field and health.
The conclusion of the work is that health problems such as itching, headache, migraine, nausea, dizziness, concentration problems, tiredness and sleep problems can be related to the electromagnetic field.
At worst, long-term exposure to the electromagnetic field can lead to more serious illnesses such as ME and cancer, claims the report entitled The Bio Initiative.
Unaware of police report
The police report is not as yet registered as a case by Rogaland police district. Stavanger council is thereby also unaware of the report and its content.
Functioning health inspector in Stavanger, Jens Max Holm, says to Aftenbladet that the council has not considered it a threat to health to establish a wireless network in the town.
"We refer to the Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority, and their view is that there is no danger linked to such a network," says Holm.
Concern-report in Trondheim
Stavanger, together with Trondheim are the two cities in the country which have concentrated most on the wireless network.
Today there are 12 base-stations for wireless network in the town centre, set up by Stavanger council. In addition there are networks by private parties.
So far, complaints about the network in Stavanger haven't occured. This is not so in Trondheim, where people have complained of health problems after the wireless network was introduced in the town in the autumn of 2006.
Several people complained of health problems after the network was introduced, which led to the county doctor in South-Trøndelag sending a concern report to the Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority.
The Authority conducted surveys which concluded that the electromagnetic field from the network was not a breach of the appropriate limits, and that there therefore was no cause for concern.
