Following the recent European Parliament’s overwhelming majority vote to shake-up regulations governing mobile base stations and other sources of electromagnetic frequencies, Flimkien ghal Ambjent Ahjar (FAA) suggests that it is now time for government, in collaboration with the local mobile operators, to take appropriate action and correct the current unchecked proliferation of these potentially-dangerous EM sources.

FAA has received repeated complaints from worried parents from all over the island, and in spite of repeated assurances from telecommunications companies that these antennae do not pose any danger, their worries seem vindicated by the fact that the MEPs voting in the European Parliament voiced their health concerns very clearly and most specifically over children’s and young people’s exposure to these potentially dangerous electromagnetic sources. This was clearly reflected in the European Parliament Resolution highlighting the fact that that every individual is now being exposed to a complex mixture of electric and magnetic fields of different frequencies, both at home and at work, that pose potential health risks, especially to children.

Although the EU Interphone epidemiological study is not yet concluded, the EU Resolution makes a number of recommendations, for example that governments should better protect people living close to transmitters, by setting provisions regarding the distance between a given site and the transmitters, the height of the site in relation to the height of the base station, or the direction of a transmitting antenna in relation to living environments. It calls for optimal placement of masts and transmitters and further calls for the sharing of masts and transmitters placed in this way by providers so as to limit the proliferation of poorly positioned masts and transmitters. Above all the Resolution urges authorities to ensure at least that schools, crèches, retirement homes, and health care institutions are kept clear, within a specific distance determined by scientific criteria, of facilities of this type.

Indeed, the EU resolution on limiting the proliferation of such transmitters is already entrenched in out Structure Plan Policy Ben 13 which states “The Planning Authority will not normally grant permission for the installation of more than one telecommunications antenna or dish where a shared system is possible.” This is regrettably being ignored, with mobile phone companies clearly waging open antenna warfare on our rooftops, with some roofs burdened with as many as four separate mobile antennae. FAA refers to a 2006 Malta Communications Authority report indicating over 400 base stations on this small island, which number must have increased considerably, given the market entry of new mobile telephony operators. But despite the country’s high population density, Malta is one of just a handful in European countries that has not carried out any studies on the potential health effects of electromagnetic frequencies.

FAA is confident that proper adherence to Policy Ben 13 in our Structure Plan will lead to fewer base stations, and obligatory antenna-sharing among different mobile companies. This will ultimately lead to lower expenses for the mobile companies involved, which savings should enable lower mobile call pricing structures to the Maltese public, presently paying considerably higher rates than those on mainland Europe.

Photo above: Increase and multiply; as many as five mobile base stations on a single roof in a built-up residential area

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