The CAVI Society  

Children As Victims Enquiry

Children Against Vested Interests

Citizens As Victims Inquiry

New Adult Arm

 

 

The CAVI Society was set up on 13th December 2006 by two trustees who had shared concerns about electro-magnetic radiation over a six year period from 2000, after establishing a local campaign group in Dorridge, Solihull in May 2000. A month after this group's first meeting the long-awaited Stewart Report was published in June 2000, which among other things stated that mobile telephone masts should not be situated in residential areas, as a precautionary principle. Upon its publication, the government said that it was "minded" to implement its recommendations. Eight years on, some people are wondering what has become of the precautionary principle as more and more powerful mobile telephones masts are erected nearer and nearer to people's homes.

 We have been told that at any one time there are often as many as 1000 groups campaigning against the erection of masts near their homes, yet to our knowledge, so far, three attempts by members of parliament to get a Private Members Bill through to second reading have failed miserably. The members of parliament who have introduced these bills want what has become a blatantly obvious need - tighter planning control. This is not going to happen in the totally inadequate 'private members Bill' system, where the bill is heard (if at all) on a Friday morning when most members have already retired to their constituencies. Although The Local Government Ombudsman's "Special Report- Telecommunication masts: problems with 'prior approval' applications" of June 2007 (see www.lgo.org.uk) goes a long way to redress some of the problems of maladministration committed by errant Councils, we are concerned that the Ombudsman system may not be able to react with sufficient expediency, or force, for example, to the report brought out by an international group of scientists on August 31st. 2007 (see www.bioinitiative.org) which reviewed more that 2000 studies and concluded that the existing ICNIRP public safety limits on emissions levels are "inadequate to protect public health". One may well now wonder what had become of the precautionary principle, and how both the Telecom companies, local councils and the executive arm of the government, The Planning Inspectorate, can continue to affirm that as long as ICNIRP guidelines are adhered to then there should be no further need to consider health issues.
The CAVI Society has raised this issue with the Local Government Ombudsman as part of a complaint which it has submitted with regard to maladministration by Solihull Council and is intending to raise the same concern with The Planning Inspectorate in Bristol. We are also concerned that under the Newport Judgement of 2000 perception of health risks are allowed to be considered as a material planning consideration, yet if a mast is erected as a result of maladministration then residents lose the benefit of The Newport Judgement, which surely constitutes for them a great injustice. We have asked our legal team to look at the consequences of this anomaly. Raising awareness of these issues is some of the present work being undertaken by us. We have also sent in submissions to The Church of England's Children's Society's Good Childhood Enquiry and sent a copy to The Children's Commissioner for England.

We try to support parents who are campaigning against masts which are likely to be erected in close proximity to children's schools or nurseries-andthe publication of The BioINitiative Report has lent an urgency to our work.We also work with advising parents as to how to make the home environment safer by pulling out cordless phone systems and either returning to a landline system or installing a safer cordless phone system that does not emit microwave radiation 24/7. (For info. on such a system please see www.lowradiation.co.uk ).  We have discovered for ourselves, and have also been made further aware, of the fact that as more and more people are converting lofts in their homes, rather than move house, that more and more children (and adults) are sleeping within what may be a main beam from a mast whose signals were designed to pass over the roofs of two-storey houses. Many people are therefore putting themselves and their children at greater risk than they may sometimes realise from converting lofts without due awareness and consideration of this issue. No loft conversion where people are going to sleep should be undertaken without a proper analysis of any possible incoming radiation and how best to incorporate radiation-reducing materials into the conversion process. In some cases it may be decided not to proceed with such a conversion. 
Update. 
The CAVI launch: 

1. Most of you who have perhaps been watching this website will now realise that we have had to postpone our launch-possibly until well into 2009. We had envisaged that the Ombudsman's report re Solihull Council would have been issued by September/October and that we could have proceeded with arrangements for the launch. We did not wish, and still do not wish, for the one to run into the other. The Ombudsman's investigation matters a great deal and repercussions and developments may go on for some time yet. It must therefore take as long as it takes- please bear with us. What matters most to CAVI is that we are able to demonstrate at all times that we are doing our best to meet the commitment given in our mission statement.
2. A sign of hope. 

Powerwatch emailed us on 23/ 09/ 08 to tell us that the European Parliament have recommended stricter limits for cell-phones -they voted 522 to 16. The statement from the Parliament reads: "The limits on exposure to electromagnetic fields (EMFs) which have been set for the general public are obsolete." Please see www.powerwatch.org.uk  for full details.
3. The European Parliament has also responded to the Bio-Initiatve Report of August 2007: 

The European Parliament "is greatly concerned at the Bio-Initiative international report concernings EMFs, which summarises over 1500 studies on that topic and which points in its conclusions to the health risks posed by emissions from mobile-telephony devices such as mobile telephones, UMTS, WiFI, Wimax and Bluetooth, and also DECT landline telephones."
CAVI's response to this is now to try to engage with our MEPS and particularly with those engaged in the European Cancer Patient Coalition and MEPs Against Cancer.The question of the validity of the ICNIRP guidelines on emissions levels has always been with us and now it has assumed paramount importance.
Our work has a far more pressing urgency than the average man-in-the- street realises. This is a battle to keep the nation's children safe, and to try to give them a future worth growing up for- where risks to their health, well-being, their future fertility and right to have their own children and live in a safe environment are seriously being eroded on a day to day basis, under the name of "progress".
For serious questions of a technical nature we refer you to the excellent website of www.powerwatch.org.uk, which is updated on a regular basis. Powerwatchwas set up by Alasdair and Jean Philips who have been researching the health effects of electromagnetic fields for some twenty years. Monitors to test these fields can be either hired or bought, and information on how to make your home a safer place for your children and yourselves by the installation of radiation-reducing materials is readily available from their sister organisation www.emfields.org. Anyone who seriously wishes to study this subject and get on a learning curve should visit the powerwatch website or telephoneEmfields on 01353 778814.
Another excellent organisation also giving out a wealth of information but with a particular emphasis on electrosensivity ( a rapidly growing disability) isElectroSensivity-UK.They can be contacted on0845 643 9748on weekday mornings or visit their website www.es-uk.info
CAVI is indebted to Powerwatch and ES-UK for the invaluable help and guidance which they have given and are still continuing to give us.
 
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