Mobile phone masts: protesting the scientific evidence

Abstract

In the UK mobile phone ownership is high, however, there are conspicuous local protests against mobile phone masts. Protesters' concerns often focus on the claimed ill health effects of mobile phone technology, which are frequently dismissed by industry and scientific experts. This paper provides an in-depth study into the attitudes and beliefs of one local protest. It considers to what extent health issues dominate the group's concerns and how the campaigners have engaged with scientific knowledge to form their opinion. Surprisingly mobile phone ownership was high within the protest group. This apparent paradox could be rationalized, however, by considering the location of the group and the ways in which the protesters used their mobile phone. Few believed that the precautionary approach had been fully applied to mobile phones. The campaign can be interpreted as one that questions the presumption that science and technology leads to increased economic performance and quality of life.

Older People, Mobile Communication and Risks

“…The media helps raise public concerns [30,31], and open discussions about the potentially adverse effects of radiofrequency electromagnetic fields from mobile telephony are common in Europe-e.g., [15,32,33]. Particularly, the media became "key actors in informing the public about scientific developments concerning potential health risks from mobile telecommunication" [34] (p. 145).…”

Noninvasive Assessment of Metabolic Effects of Exposure to 900 MHz Electromagnetic Fields on Djungarian Hamsters (Phodopus sungorus)

“…No such rigorous evaluations of programmes for public and stakeholder participation were identified but some published case studies analyse the results of public participation (or lack thereof) in decision-making processes around base station siting issues (Drake, 2006;Law & McNeish, 2007). These studies, and a more theoretical paper (Hom, Moles Plaza & Palmén, 2009), have the core theme that it is unhelpful to characterize public responses as irrational -more refined analysis of public responses is required.…”

Public understanding of hydrogen energy: A theoretical approach

“…Although social constructionism has been adopted by some (e.g. Drake, 2006) in an attempt to juxtapose different, 'knowledge bases' (p. 390) such as scientific and lay knowledge to give equal weight to consideration of both for participation in policy issues, a coherent theoretical base to this approach is still lacking. Whilst acknowledging that understanding is multidimensional in nature, few studies provide a framework for coherently drawing together different strands or show how understanding has been implemented or discussed (Devine-Wright, 2005).…”