Phone masts

axisus

So let me get this right - you are holding a portable radiation emitting device to your head throughout the day by choice, and you are worried about some mast down the road?

Moe_Zambeek

There's a Cala site in Currie that is basically right under the power lines, on the other side of the road from the quite large substation. 500k for 4 beds crazy. 

thomasross20

Have you see the Barrat development, I think it's called the Kilns... not far from Mortonhall/Gilmerton... right next to the power lines and that busy road? 

richardhomer

thomasross20 said:

Have you see the Barrat development, I think it's called the Kilns... not far from Mortonhall/Gilmerton... right next to the power lines and that busy road? 

You're not 'selling' this to me Thomas...

thomasross20

That's not my one - that's a different one! 
Thankfully we only have the phone mast.... for now......

Moe_Zambeek

thomasross20 said:

Have you see the Barrat development, I think it's called the Kilns... not far from Mortonhall/Gilmerton... right next to the power lines and that busy road? 

Mortonhall would be enough to put me off

CabbageCat

A quick Google shows I have four masts within about 800m. I've never considered being bothered by it in the past so I don't think I'll be bothered now.

thomasross20

Did you just use mastdata.com to find that out?

Snap

Wouldn't worry about it Tom, there's no evidence of any risk change.

We've lived near one for years.

Having said that.....I never feel the cold, and my toes light up when my phone rings..

CabbageCat

thomasross20 said:

Did you just use mastdata.com to find that out?

Yeah.

thomasross20

Right.
I'm just at the location on my own to check it out. Took a pic, will post later. It's actually about 100m from the house. About one house away from ours. We'd see it pretty easily. It's the second house in from the road, not a main road but would get some road noise. 



That's it behind the lampost! Where my car is... is the entrance to the development and our house would be second one in.

thomasross20

I traced the number of steps to the garden, approx. 32 steps or 20-25m. I'm not gonna lie, I don't like it. So much so that I told her I'm deeply unhappy with it and would sell it on quickly. We're at odds over it which is the last thing I want right now. If all was fine I'd pull out but it's not fine and she wants it. 

Clarky

if Satch turns up at your door you'll know it's G3

Moe_Zambeek

She wants it, she gets it, that's my experience with buying houses and t'wife.

Just make sure you're paying the right amount and it'll be fine. You'll never find a house that ticks every box for all parties...

CabbageCat

thomasross20 said:

I traced the number of steps to the garden, approx. 32 steps or 20-25m. I'm not gonna lie, I don't like it. So much so that I told her I'm deeply unhappy with it and would sell it on quickly. We're at odds over it which is the last thing I want right now. If all was fine I'd pull out but it's not fine and she wants it. 

What is it you don't like about it? Ugliness? Radiation? Pokémon?

ICBM

Just get all the walls on the side of the house that faces the mast done with 1970s foil-backed wallpaper, you'll be fine. It might look a bit like a Chinese restaurant in there of course.

vasselmeyer

This stuff about the dangers of mobile phones and masts is pretty much nonsense. People don’t even know exactly what they’re worried about apart from "radiation". If I were genuinely worried about the claim that mobile phones could cause me brain cancer, the first thing I would do is campaign to make my own mobile phone operator erect their mast as close to my house as possible because of the inverse-square law; that is that the power of the signal falls away extremely rapidly as you move away from the mast. This happens exponentially because the energy is dissipated and spread out in three dimensions in a sphere.

Meanwhile, with a phone you are holding a powerful transmitter right up next to your brain.  In fact, because of the inverse square law, the phone gives you a far higher dose of EM radiation than the mast does. However, modern mobile phones (i.e. anything with 3G) try to preserve their battery life by transmitting a much weaker signal into the air (and consequently your head) when they detect that a mast is very close by. Therefore, if you use a mobile phone, it’s in your interests to have it transmit at the lowest power it can manage, which means a strong signal from the mast, which means the mast should be built in your back garden.

There is quite a good article in the New York Times which explains why people think mobile phones cause brain cancer by Siddhartha Mukherje. He does this without dismissing concerns, and while explaining why this issue is so fraught with interpretation bias and confusion. Mukherjee’s key points are well understood in epidemiological circles, and typically misstated in the mainstream press and  by nobbers who post links to articles by the Daily Express on Facebook.

CabbageCat

vasselmeyer said:

This stuff about the dangers of mobile phones and masts is pretty much nonsense. People don’t even know exactly what they’re worried about apart from "radiation". If I were genuinely worried about the claim that mobile phones could cause me brain cancer, the first thing I would do is campaign to make my own mobile phone operator erect their mast as close to my house as possible because of the inverse-square law...

Wisdomed.

If you held a mobile phone at 1cm from your head and stood 2500cm(25m) from a mast the intensity from the mast at source would have to be 6.25million (2500 squared) more than the phone to have more effect. Which it isn't.

thomasross20

I think I'm just having a panic attack given what's going on!
I was worried:
- unfounded health risk.
- the structure looking a tad oppressive and clearly visible from back garden.
- future re-sale.

Nice post @vasselmeyer ; - I'll check that article out when I get the time!
We're going ahead with it - I e-mailed the developer though just to ask about their awareness of it when building. If it's dangerous to be close to one, you'd think there would need to be a sealed-off perimeter!

Just under a lot of pressure now - not helping myself.

Sporky

You can always sneak out one night and paint a smiley face on it.