The Education Service recognises that there has been concern nationally and locally about the siting of these installations on and near to school sites and offer the following for information.

“A Precautionary Approach” was a recommendation contained in the report of the Independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones (IEGMP) more widely known as the Stewart Report.  This can be viewed at the Independent Expert Group on Mobile Phones (IEGMP) web site.  The report, which was published on 11th May 2000, recommended a precautionary approach to the use of mobile phone technologies until much more detailed and scientifically robust information on health effects becomes available. The special attention paid to schools by IEGMP was largely a response to public concerns rather than any proven health hazard.

The report commented that

“the balance of evidence to date suggests that exposure to RF radiation below NRPB (National Radiological Protection Board) and ICNIRP (International Commission on Non-Ionising Radiation Protection) does not cause adverse health effects to the general population.”

This can be viewed on the Health Protection Agency web site.

Indeed on a recent independent survey of one of our school installations, the highest reading recorded was only 1/10000th of the more stringent ICNIRP Safe Exposure Level.

All of our existing installation agreements were entered into before 1999 when the Stewart Report was commissioned, and consequently before the “precautionary approach” was coined. We will therefore now adopt this precautionary approach when considering any future request for schools to be used as base stations.