The Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association (AMTA) has responded to local community concerns in Bathurst about a proposal to build a mobile phone base station in the suburb of Kelso. AMTA told Prime TV that it understands that some people in the community are concerned about the proposed mobile phone base station at Kelso.

AMTA Chief Executive Officer, Chris Althaus, said the industry does not claim to be scientific experts. “We rely on independent experts, such as the World Health Organization (WHO), and our industry complies with strict science-based safety standards which are recognised by the WHO. These standards have large in-built safety margins that provide protection for everyone, including children,” he said.

The WHO says:

“Considering the very low exposure levels and research results collected to date, there is no convincing scientific evidence that the weak RF signals from base stations and wireless networks cause adverse health effects.”

Mr Althaus said some concerned residents may not realise that they have been living with far higher environmental exposure from TV and radio signals for many decades with no substantiated scientific evidence of health effects.

“A nationwide study conducted by the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) found that TV and AM and FM radio were by far the most significant contributors of radio frequency emissions in the environment (98 per cent),” he said.

“A recent audit of base stations across Australia by ARPANSA found some sites emit less than 0.001 per cent of the safety standard – or 100,000 times below the safety standard.

“However, the mobile phone industry acknowledges that some people are genuinely concerned and we are committed to addressing such concerns through active community and local government consultation.”

In response to residents’ understandable concerns about property values, a recent New Zealand analysis of more than 3000 homes has shown mobile phone towers have no impact on property values. The study took place between January 2005 and December 2007, and compared the individual homes’ quotable value sale price to their proximity to 46 mobile phone towers. All of the 3126 homes analysed in the study were located within 500 metres of a mobile phone tower, with the study divided into 50m increments.

The research results, presented by Dr Olga Filippova at the Pacific Rim Real Estate Conference in January, showed no evidence that homes located near base stations have decreased property values.

Mr Althaus said residents’ concerns were not supported by the weight of scientific evidence and they might consider that the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) reported last year that 63% of all calls to Triple Zero emergency services were made from mobile phones, which rely on base stations to give coverage.