Health issues alone should no longer be grounds for rejecting cellphone tower sites, says the Ministry for the Environment.
Guidelines the ministry released yesterday say that the health risks from radio frequency transmitters are negligible as long as they comply with the New Zealand standard.
Ministry group manager Ray Salter said the guidelines were designed to provide advice to councils, industry and the public on radio frequency technology, scientific findings and recent Environment Court case law.
"As long as a cellphone tower, or other radio frequency transmitter, has emissions lower than the New Zealand standard, the ministry recommends they be a permitted activity. In saying that, issues such as amenity will still need to be considered when placement of a cellphone tower is being decided."
The guidelines are the result of a two-year consultation process. A discussion document released last year attracted 87 submissions.
The Ministry of Health team leader for environmental health, Sally Gilbert, said international studies had not uncovered any established, or even strongly suspected, health effects from exposures to radio frequency fields that complied with the International Commission on Non-Ionising Radiation Protections (ICNIRP), on which the New Zealand standard was based.
But a long-time researcher into the health effects of cellphone sites, Neil Cherry, said the guidelines should be appealed under the Bill of Rights.
"It's appealable on predetermination - of ignoring any submission that opposed it. They [the Environment Ministry] took into account things they shouldn't have and they didn't take into account things they should have. They're reasons for a judicial review."
Dr Cherry said the NZ standards were not based on public health studies. The safe level in these studies was zero, whereas the ICNIRP code was selective and seriously misquoted and ignored studies showing any damage to chromosomes.
"This is going to put the public at risk and it's delivering what the [former] National Government asked for ... to make it cheaper and easier for industry and local bodies to harmonise with international guidelines and allay public fears of the health effects," said Dr Cherry.
Cellphone towers sites should be placed away from the public, and the community should be part of the consultation process.
- NZPA
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