By Gordon Berry

CAMPAIGNERS WHO want to challenge public authorities on the controversial subject of TETRA police communication masts should benefit from the terms of the new Freedom of Information Act.

This has been claimed by Mid Scotland and Fife Green MSP Mark Ruskell, who said yesterday that a “new era of open government” will come with the bill as it becomes law on January 1.

There has been furious debate about TETRA in north-east Fife, and most local councillors, although over-ruled by a central committee, have said that that no more masts should be erected until more is known about health issues.

Mr Ruskell said that members of the public should now have a right to know the locations of existing, planned and proposed masts, in a format that is simple and accessible. He also said that Ofcom and police forces have a duty and a responsibility to make that information easily available.

“Currently, the data is available from Ofcom’s sitefinder website on a postcode basis, covering one postcode area only per request, rather than being presented as a complete map of the country. Only operational transmitters are shown, and the site is updated only once every three months,” said Mr Ruskell.

He added that Green MSPs had written to police forces throughout Scotland requesting information on the locations of the masts, and to Airwave, the company responsible for the scheme.

However, he said, the information was not provided by the police, and Airwave would only co-operate if the data was not made public.

“Greens hope that this legislation will herald a new era of open, transparent government which will give communities and individuals greater ability to access public bodies’ information and scrutinise what they are doing with taxpayers’ money.

“We hope that this new legislation can be used to ensure the public have as much information as possible on TETRA masts across the country, in a clear and accessible format,” he said.

The MSP said that the Freedom of Information Act was made significantly more robust by the efforts of environmental campaigners, especially Friends of the Earth Scotland, and he hoped that public bodies will enter into the spirit of the act by co-operating in every way possible.

The Greens, he said, want a moratorium on TETRA mast developments until the potential risks to public and users’ health have been assessed.

He added that masts have been erected throughout Scotland and are now being used in parts of the country, but the Greens were arguing that guidelines issued to local authority planning departments by the Executive are completely inadequate because they fail to take into account the potential health problems.

The party has pointed to the Trower Report, commissioned by the Police Federation in England, where TETRA is fully operational.

This report, it is claimed, had found that there was a significant risk of headaches and migraines, and a possible association with motor neurone disease. Residents near masts south of the border had also reported nose bleeds, nausea, headaches, and other symptoms.

The Greens have also said that the Stewart Report issued by the Independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones recommended that emissions in the 16Hz range be avoided, as this frequency is known to be psycho- active. TETRA masts, they say, have been have been shown to pulse at 17.6 Hz.

Currently, a proposed telecommunications structure must comply with the guidelines laid down by the International Commission on Non-Ionising Radiation Protection (ICNIRP), and further promulgated by the National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB).

The Greens have claimed, however, that the only health impacts that the NRPB acknowledges is the heating effect of radiation (the microwave oven effect), not the effects of pulsing radiation.