War over iBurst tower erupts

Do you think staying close to a cellular/wireless mast adversely affects your health?

  • Yes

    Votes: 83 36.4%

  • No

    Votes: 101 44.3%

  • Uncertain

    Votes: 44 19.3%
  • Total voters
    228
jannievanzyl said:
:)

Another one of these urban legends we often hear is that bees disappear when the towers go up. I see Dorny made the same claim in the Star.

Funny thing though; one of the biggest 'health hazards' the engineers face when working on the towers are bee stings!

Seems the bees really love nesting on the towers.
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Apparently this is not just urban legend - I am sure your technical staff must be aware of this even if you aren't:

http://www.physorg.com/news170920128.html
http://infochangeindia.org/20090904.../Mobile-phone-waves-harmful-to-honeybees.html
 
noxibox said:
That's not inherently the case at all. Take the sun as a good example.
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We stuffed around with the lens between us and the sun as well.... And if you move rather quickly from your natural habitat your skin will also take a few generations to form enough pigment to protect you. But all in all... Again a man made problem - you did not see Hercules running around with a squeeze jar of Water Babies.
 
Jannie Van Zyl:

I find it interesting that all those on this and other forums (including debbie, halicon, skeptik/starstreak, prometheus, gecko, rustum, sackboy (skeptik again?), etc.) have not accepted my offer to come and look at the file and tell me exactly what is wrong. Yet they are very vocal on-line.
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Excuse me? Jannie, can you tell me what I have been "very vocal" about in relation to this particular thread? What have I said about iBurst and the Craigavon issue? Are you seeing ghosts?
 
Originally Posted by j@w View Post
I think the people in the area got the "mass hysteria" symptom.

Damn YOU IMAGINARY EVIL RADIATION FORCES.

dumb people > dumber people


Is it just me, or is that pretty darned close to RBP material? *gags.....
Last edited by rpm; 21-11-2009 at 08:16 PM..
Edit/Delete Message

Thanks for taking out j@ws remark on tracey-lee dorny should have tyres put round her neck. Twas rather crass, you'll agree? Sort of odd to post my remark AFTER you'd removed it though heheh....;)
 
w1z4rd said:
Tracy`s lack of real evidence makes me really suspicious.

It doesnt take a genius to take the people who are suffering from these alleged ailments to a real doctor and get affidavits confirming the "rash`s" these people are suffering from are caused by radiation burns and not some kinda bacteria problem. Isnt it that easy?
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I think the biggest problem is that it would not be possible to directly correlate the symptoms as being caused by the tower. If someone all of a sudden developed a headache what are the chances of the doctor diagnosing the tower as being the cause? Even if it was it could then be concluded that the person's mind caused the headache. A placebo effect. They say the tower gives them headaches so they get a headache. This is always going to be the issue. Any ailment can have more than one cause.

We have antennas on our roof now which have been discussed on here before. I have never had a panic attack before in my life. I recently had one. Is this caused by more stress in my life? Or is it the antennas? If I move away and I never have another one is it conclusive proof that it was the antennas? You see the problem all parties have...
 
Sackboy said:
Jannie, once again you go on the offensive, even bringing me into your attack. This is not going to help you one iota - and that's a promise. As a CEO you have to behave in a better, more mature way - surely your advisors have told you that?
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Interesting you say that... I was just reading through this thread and thinking to myself "I wonder if this guy really is the CEO" as his cocky attitude leaves a lot to be desired.
 
happychappy said:
The towers usually have to deal with a lot more information than a simple radar system. They use a lot more power too...
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How many Watts/Kilowatts/Megawatts are we talking about here?

And what is a simple radar system?
 
The medical argument needs much more evidence and is open to debate. The real issue is if proper procedure was followed in erecting the tower. If that was legal then its up to government to produce or change regulations regarding health and EMR if there are causes for concern. If the tower was built legally and iBurst are complying with wireless regs they cant really do more can they?
I do hope all the i's were dotted and the t's were crossed?
 
jannievanzyl said:
Thanks for the links.

I can't comment on the India bees, but our local, hairy-chested variety sure seems to like to nest on the towers.
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Maybe there is a reason for this. It might be worth getting a study done of bee populations in the vicinities of your towers - have they become dependent on the signals for homing, or some such? Bees are quite important:

It is estimated that one third of the human food supply depends on insect pollination, most of which is accomplished by bees
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LancelotSA said:
We have antennas on our roof now which have been discussed on here before. I have never had a panic attack before in my life. I recently had one. Is this caused by more stress in my life? Or is it the antennas? If I move away and I never have another one is it conclusive proof that it was the antennas? You see the problem all parties have...
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I never had a panic attack in my life, then had one a few years ago. And I haven't had one since. But I didn't have any antennae or towers added or removed from my environment...

The only way to tell (and this is tricky for long term symptoms, admittedly) is to do a double-blind test. Switch the tower on and off randomly, get people to log their headaches, and compare the two sets of data. Self-report of symptoms is just too vulnerable to all sorts of influences to rely on directly.
 
What makes the iBurst tower different than all the Vodacom, Mtn, Neotell etc. towers that are out there?
 
Gargmel said:
What makes the iBurst tower different than all the Vodacom, Mtn, Neotell etc. towers that are out there?
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I presume theyfollowed the correct planning procedures and made residents aware of their plan. Most of the regular cell towers are not as imposing. Have you seen the pics?
 
CathJ said:
I never had a panic attack in my life, then had one a few years ago. And I haven't had one since. But I didn't have any antennae or towers added or removed from my environment...

The only way to tell (and this is tricky for long term symptoms, admittedly) is to do a double-blind test. Switch the tower on and off randomly, get people to log their headaches, and compare the two sets of data. Self-report of symptoms is just too vulnerable to all sorts of influences to rely on directly.
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Yip, I am in agreement. But it is still going to be very difficult to decide whether the event was as a direct result of the tower. Imagine the tower is on for a day. It has it's effect on your body. The next day it is switched off but because of the effect it had you now suffer a panic attack or headache. You make note of this. The company then says that the tower was not on this day so it could not have caused it.

further to this something like cancer, which seems to be a concern, will only manifest itself over a long period of time. It would not be immediately visible when the tower is switch on and off for the test period. The cancer may only manifest years later.

It's always going to be a tough one to call and prove.
 
do birds actually nest/land on these towers ?
 
jannievanzyl said:
Can you please post the information showing these towers are "usually more powerful than military radar towers"?

While you're at it, throw in a picture or two of these 'cooked birds'. :eek:
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I also look forward to such proof....

The disinformation abounds....:rolleyes: I am actually getting quite sick of justifying the facts, and in the end it looks like I am taking iBurst's side.

This matter has two issues... both of which are concerning to me... the first issue is that of permission granted for the mast. I have no knowledge of those matters, but it is fast becoming apparent that this was done by the book!!!!! Then the issue of radiation... as I maintain, there is a small chance by some conditions existing there that susceptible people may be affected, but in the main, generally not!

Just for the record, I found an acquaintence of mine who lives in the UK, he has got a magnetron from a microwave oven on his benchtop, he uses to test his neon tubes, by holding it with his bare hand. Tells us he's done this for the last however many years without injury. So there, his hand hasn't fallen off, or burnt, or broken out in cancer. The magnetron acts as a diathermic device, heating the tissues. Diathermy is used in medicine, not so? A magnetron heats, that's all it does and it needs to emit over 400 watts of CW to achieve that.

An iBurst basestation puts out 26 watts modulated in bursts. I seriously doubt that will raise the temperature of anything even by 0,01 degrees C. If put into a dummy load it will probably weakly heat it, compared to a military/civilian radar that will probably set most dummy loads on fire. Ham radios, especially some CB radios are MORE POWERFUL than this!!!!

And now for the joke of it all... I lived next door to an MTN tower between 1994 and 2005, no change in health, no cancer, no skin rashes, or anything to myself, my pets or my cancer suffering mother. My mother got cancer from cigarettes, which in my book is a far greater health hazard than any military radar.

What of all the planes that pump out microwaves into the air?
What of all the cellphone masts?
what of all the armed response radios in people's homes/businesses pumping out over 15 watts?
Everyone loves cellphones, yet nobody complains about them.

With all due respect, this is fast becoming a witch-hunt!
 
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Necuno said:
do birds actually nest/land on these towers ?
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Yes, try an explain to an eagle sitting on her nest why you want to service the tower. :)

One of the biggest challenges the guys with the big transmitters (such as radio, TV and the military) have with their masts are the stay wires as the birds fly into them.

And those towers put out many kilowatts, thousands of times more than a typical mobile tower. Yet the birds don't seem to mind hanging around these towers.
 
Kei said:
With all due respect, this is fast becoming a witch-hunt!
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I agree with you wholeheartedly. Makes me think about that stupid thread titled 'iBurst erects 20m tower, hopes residents won't notice'. :rolleyes: I'm pretty sure they WANT them to notice.
 
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