Residents gathered on Sunday to protest against Telstra’s proposed microwave ‘data only’ antenna for its facility in Main Arm village.
The group claim it will ‘constitute a serious health hazard and do nothing to improve mobile coverage.’
Resident Nino MacDonald said, ‘The Telstra proposal will effectively irradiate an area within a radius of 50 metres with 10.15 mW/m2 of microwave radiation; equivalent to holding a phone next to your head 24/7.
‘Our concern is that the highest radiation would include a daycare centre, the Main Arm store and cafe as well as several residences.’
‘Under current planning laws, Telcos are not required to seek development approval for work undertaken on their land. However owing to ongoing community pressure, construction, which was supposed to have commenced in early January, has been temporarily delayed. According to Visionstream, Telstra’s agents, the matter has been ‘escalated’ and is now before Mitch Fifield, federal communications minister. Residents have also called on Justine Elliott MP to intercede on their behalf.’
Whats the NBN got do with this?
Could the Echo kindly note this is not an NBN Tower and change the heading to this peice, it is a Telstra data only 1 meter , roof mounted antenna , the radiation that will be emitted however will be twice that of the 50 meter NBN tower that residents of Coorabell are presently opposing , both these developments have evaded the scrutiny of the development application process because government has abdicated its responsibility for responsible law making and handed regulation to the Telcos where it does not belong, leaving residents with no recourse of meaningful objection.
As a consequence we have the situation in Main Arm of a high intensity antenna , extremely close to sensitive areas which will chronically expose many members of the public to microwave radiation, such a situation is not justified based merely on the convenience it provides.
The lady on the left is holding up a sign with an Ionizing radiation symbol on it.
Radio towers do not emit ionizing radiation, they emit non-ionizing radiation.
There is no nuclear radiation hazard here.
Might be an idea to fully understand what they are protesting about first, if they are to have any credibility?
I agree though, towers should probably not be placed so close to residential areas, to be on the safe side.
The antennas will be 50m above ground though, so that reduces the field strength considerably.
The antenna will NOT be 50 meters above ground because there is NOT a tower , it is a roof mounted antenna which is 4 meters above ground , this makes the impact greater in the first 50 meters (using telstra’s figures)
Does anyone know if this plan moved forward and where the exact location of the antenna would be?
Thinking of moving to that area, just near that Telstra cabin and wondering if that would me a health hazard?
Thanks!