Mobile phone antennae removed from university over cancer risk fears
Campus dwellers assured radiation exposure 'extremely low', but not all are convinced
The University of Science and Technology has taken steps to ease fears among academics and students about a potential cancer risk from a proliferation of mobile phone antennae on campus building rooftops.
A memo was sent out to all staff and students after the Sunday Morning Post reported last weekend that mobile phone companies had paid the university to erect an estimated 87 antennae on the rooftops of residential and student blocks.
Teachers living on campus said workmen had been seen in the days after the story appeared, removing some antennae from blocks where there was a particularly high concentration of masts.
Some in the academic community who live with young children on campus fear the electromagnetic radiation (EMR) the antennae generate could pose a cancer risk.
In its January 30 memo, the university's health, safety and environment office acknowledged the "concern" but insisted the radiation risk on campus was low. The memo, much of it written in dense technical language, cites research by a World Health Organisation working group concluded in 2011 that exposure to EMR fields was "possibly carcinogenic to humans".
However, the memo said that residents' exposure was "extremely low as the rooftop antenna are generally, highly directional and pointing outward from the building".
Although several antenna might be grouped on one rooftop, only one in three would be transmitting antennae emitting EMR fields, it said, and concrete walls and ceilings afforded additional protection.