Phone antennas:a catastrophe for public health

Dr Sandrine Wittman is a researcher in molecular biology at
the Léon Bérard Cancer Research Centre in Lyon.

For this citizen of Chassieu, where her children go to the Louis Pradel primary school, the installation by the phone company Orange of a mobile phone antenna near the school would be, in her own words, "a real catastrophe for public health". Interview.

>> In the course of your work, have you observed any damage that could be attributed to mobile phones or phone masts?

During the last ten years we've noticed a marked increase in the number of cancers of the salivary glands, which are not protected by the skull when a mobile phone is being used. These new cancers are now showing up in progressively younger women.

What's more, we're now treating young children who have leukaemia, who used to go to a school in Lyon where the antennas have now been taken away.

>> Is there in your view a connection between the problems linked to mobile phones and those linked to phone masts?

They're the same kind of electromagnetic waves. Long-term exposure to the microwaves from mobile phones can split up the DNA in cells and thus trigger the cancer.

As for phone antennas, we know that they pave the way for the accumulation of toxic molecules in the brain, which can lead to the premature onset of Alzheimer's disease and also to brain tumours.

Among children an increase in leukaemia cases has been observed which is very suspect.

>> Have we got examples of sites where the antennas have caused damage to people's health?

There is an investigation under way at Fourvière Hill, an area that has the most contamination from mobile phone antennas of anywhere in France. Among other symptoms, an increase in headaches, in sleeping problems and memory loss have been observed, but also more serious pathologies such as cancer, including cases of leukaemia.

In the light of all these observations, the principle of precaution should be applied.