Reacting to the European Parliament’s recent overwhelming majority vote to shake-up regulations governing mobile base stations and other sources of electromagnetic frequencies, Flimkien ghal Ambjent Ahjar suggested that it is now high time to act on their proliferation in Malta.

Such action, the environmental pressure group said yesterday, should be taken by the government, in collaboration with Malta’s mobile telephony operators so as to correct the proliferation of such potentially dangerous sources of electromagnetic frequencies.

FAA noted yesterday how the EU resolution on limiting the proliferation of such transmitters is already entrenched in Malta’s Structure Plan Policy Ben 13, which states, “The Planning Authority will not normally grant permission for the installation of more than one telecommunications antenna or dish where a shared system is possible.”

“This,” FAA observes, “is regrettably being ignored, with mobile phone companies clearly waging open antenna warfare on our rooftops, with some roofs burdened with as many as four separate mobile antennae.”

Referring to a 2006 Malta Communications Authority report indicating the presence of over 400 base stations on what is essentially a small island, the FAA observed that the number must have increased considerably given the market entry of new mobile telephony operators.

“But despite the country’s high population density, Malta is one of just a handful in European countries that has not carried out any studies on the potential health effects of electromagnetic frequencies,” it added.

FAA believes that, “proper adherence to Policy Ben 13 in our Structure Plan would lead to fewer base stations, and obligatory antenna-sharing among different mobile companies. This will ultimately lead to lower expenses for the mobile companies involved, which savings should enable lower mobile call pricing structures to the Maltese public, which is currently paying considerably higher rates than those on mainland Europe.”

FAA reports that it has received repeated complaints from worried parents from across Malta and, in spite of repeated assurances from telecommunications companies that such antennae do not pose any danger, their worries seem vindicated by MEPs having voiced their health concerns very clearly, most specifically when it came to children’s and young people’s exposure to potentially dangerous electromagnetic sources.

The latter point was clearly reflected, FAA observed, in the European Parliament’s resolution highlighting the fact that every individual is now being exposed to a complex mixture of electric and magnetic fields of different frequencies, both at home and at work, which pose potentially serious health risks, especially to children.

Although the EU Interphone epidemiological study is not yet concluded, FAA said the EU resolution makes a number of recommendations, for example that governments should better protect people living close to transmitters by setting provisions regarding the distance between a given site and the transmitters, the height of the site in relation to the height of the base station, or the direction of a transmitting antenna in relation to living environments.

It also calls for the optimal placement of masts and transmitters, as well as for the sharing of masts and transmitters among providers so as to limit the proliferation of poorly positioned masts and transmitters.

Above all, the resolution urges authorities to ensure, that at least, schools, crèches, retirement homes, and health care institutions are kept clear from EMF sources and that they are kept outside a specific distance determined by scientific criteria.