Atawhai

Monday, 29 March 2010 By MARIANNE KELLY (Times online)

HE PROMISED to “push back” the forces behind cellphone masts outside people’s homes when he visited East Manukau.
But, in the end, super-city mayoral candidate John Banks was forced to fall back on getting the legislation changed, a stance maintained by a majority of Manukau City councillors over many torrid months.
A conference room full of people at a Half Moon Bay Residents and Ratepayers meeting were boosted by Mr Banks’ criticising telecommunications companies.
“They are arrogant people,” he said to cheers.
“In the dying days of the previous government they were given the ability to set up towers across New Zealand when they liked, how and where they liked.
“Auckland City is pushing the cellphone tower constructors, and the rich and powerful people behind them, back. The message from the city to Wellington is we need to change the legislation.”
However, Mr Banks was unable to assure one of the affected residents – Greg Kasper, of Mellons Bay – that he could get rid of existing masts or stop new ones.
“No, I can’t say we will get rid of cellphone towers unless we change the regulations [National Environmental Standards].

“Never let it be said that we will get rid of cellphone towers.
“It will be difficult for us to do anything about it except push them back.”

The mayor of the new super-city, he said, would have a lot of influence for change.

“Wellington has not woken up to that fact. They’re going to have to listen. We’re going to push back the cellphone people and get the Government to change that late [regulations] decision.”

Published: 3:59PM Thursday March 04, 2010

Source: Reuters

Maine's state Legislature could soon vote on a bill making the Northeast US state the first to require that cellular phones carry warnings of a possible link between mobile phone radiation and brain cancer.

Dozens of studies on the issue have shown no link, but have not ended the debate. Any requirement for warning labels could be a headache for cell phone manufacturers.

Maine's bill, the Children's Wireless Protection Act, was the subject of emotional testimony on Tuesday in the joint House-Senate Health and Human Services Committee in Augusta, the state capital.

The committee will next schedule one or more work sessions that could kill the bill outright, or advance it to debate by the state's House and Senate. Votes in the full Democratic-controlled state House and Senate could come as early this month, a legislative aide said.

The state's Democratic governor, John Baldacci, has not commented on the measure.

Representative Andrea Boland, a Democrat, introduced the bill after her concerns were raised by a 2006 study by the Swedish National Institute for Working Life showing a correlation between brain tumors and heavy cell phone use.

Numerous other studies have shown no such link. More research is under way.

If passed, cell phone companies selling in Maine would need to put prominent labels on phones and packaging, warning of the potential for brain cancer associated with electromagnetic radiation from the devices.

The warnings would recommend that users, especially children and pregnant women, keep the devices away from their heads and bodies.

San Francisco is also considering warning labels on cell phones. Mayor Gavin Newsom has suggested that packaging show radiation absorption levels for each phone "in a font at least as large as the price."

About 89% of the US population used a wireless phone in June 2009, according to the CTIA, the international wireless trade association. Twenty percent of US households had dispensed with land lines to go "wireless only