Are baby monitoring devices harming babies with radiation?

Radiation from baby monitors 'poses risk' - Independent on Sunday

Extract:

"Baby monitors, bought by parents to keep their children safe, may instead be harming them, some scientists fear. They warn that the devices are bathing the infants in radiation at an age when they are most vulnerable to it.

The radiation, similar to that given off by modern cordless phones, is part of the increasing electronic smog to which mobile phones, their masts and Wi-Fi systems also contribute. The monitors use the same digitally enhanced cordless telecommunication (Dect) technology as cordless phones.

Over recent weeks The Independent on Sunday has exclusively reported growing concern that the smog may be damaging human health. The paper reported that Sir William Stewart, chairman of the Health Protection Agency, has been privately pressing an investigation into the effects on children of installing Wi-Fi networks in schools.

Baby monitors are typically placed close to infants, who are particularly at risk from radiation. An inquiry by Sir William into mobile phones seven years ago reported that a one-year-old child could absorb about twice as much per kilogram of body weight as an adult.

Babies are especially vulnerable because their bodies and nervous systems are still developing and because they will have more time to accumulate exposure to the radiation and for any delayed effects to develop.

Professor Denis Henshaw of the University of Bristol said the monitors are "being marketed without any checks and balances or even studies into their effects"."

Ministers are to investigate arrangements for erecting mobile phone masts in the light of growing fears that they may cause cancer and other diseases

Health concerns over mobile phone masts prompt review - Independent on Sunday

Extract:

"Ministers are to investigate arrangements for erecting mobile phone masts in the light of growing fears that they may cause cancer and other diseases because of "electronic smog".
They will review the exceptionally favourable rules that allow mobile phone companies to escape normal planning regulations and stop councils from considering the effects of the masts on health, even when they are sited near homes and schools.

Originally promised three years ago, and then shelved, the review follows articles in The Independent on Sunday about possible effects of the radiation on children and bees. The Government will take account of new scientific and medical evidence, and consult experts and campaigners, as part of a wider review of planning guidelines which ministers send to local authorities.

More than 47,000 "base stations", like masts, have already been erected in Britain to service its 50 million mobile phones, often in defiance of intense local public opposition. Successive governments have made extraordinary concessions to the companies to ensure that coverage was rolled out across the country as quickly as possible.

Masts up to 45ft high do not need planning permission in the normal way. Instead, companies merely have to notify councils of their intentions and can go ahead unless they are formally stopped within 56 days.

Overworked planning authorities struggle to cope with these applications on time, and companies have frequently put up the masts against councils' opposition because news of a refusal has reached them shortly after the deadline."