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26th May, 2009

 

 

Among the 10 points announced by the government are, among others, banning mobile phones in primary 

schools and for children under 6, and putting on the market mobiles that can only be used for SMS (thus 

avoiding any radiation exposure), as well as models without a loudspeaker, which require the use of an 

earpiece.. 

 

 

In her speech on the first conclusions of the Round Table, Chantal Jouanno, 

the new Secretary of State for Ecology, declared today in an interview that 

she is in favour of trying out a reduction of relay antenna emissions in certain 

towns to 0.6V/m (by implication in accordance with the BioInitiative 

consortium recommendations  [petition 10 000] and the demands of the 

action group Robin des toits), while awaiting the results of a new study from 

AFFSET (French government health agency). 

But she continued to insist that there was “a need to distinguish between 

mobile phones, about which we know there are uncertainties, and relay 

antennas, for which nobody has been able to conclude that there is a risk”.  

Note all the same that there is crucial difference from earlier speeches that 

explicitly denied the existence of any risk. 

Chantal Joanno adds: “The State must take measures to prevent the mobile 

 

 

 

phone from becoming a risk.”  

 

She is therefore in favour of banning mobiles in primary schools, and of the marketing of “secured” phones 

that cannot be used without an earpiece. 

Let nobody be mistaken, in our opinion it is only under extreme pressure that she concludes, “We are in a 

democracy, we have to respond to public opinion, what people object to nowadays is the lack of openness. 

People have the feeling that an antenna can be put up right next door to them without any warning, and 

without them knowing anything about the risks related to it.” 

 

During the press conference the Minister for Health, 

Roselyne Bachelot, said on the subject of relay antennas, 

“There was no consensus on the moratorium, nor on 

lowering safety limits.” This parallels what was said in other 

terms in the commission given by the Prime Minister. There 

are strong clues that the government is almost ready at last 

to accept that mobile phones pose a health hazard, but as 

for the adverse impact of relay antennas on local residents, 

they are still in complete denial. 

 

 

For the umpteenth time Roselyne Bachelot commented that 

exposure to HF microwave radiation from mobile phones “is 

considerably higher than that from relay antennas, we have 

exposure amounting to 10,000 times as much as from relay 

antennas”. Paris: Press conference, Chantale Joanno, Roselyne 

Bachelot et Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet 

If in fact this statement is true with regard to the actual intensity observed at a given moment, Roselyne 

Bachelot should check what she says with the regulation. The permitted radiation level for antennas 

specified in the current decree 2002-775, as quoted in the courts, is exactly the same as, or even worse 

than, the level from mobile phones; in fact the level of 61V/m is the equivalent of 1,000,000 μW/m2. This 

devious use of language makes it possible for the operating companies to be infallibly 10-100 times below 

the legal limits during so-called official tests, and thus to be above reproach when questioned in court about 

the level of radiation affecting nearby residents. 

These moves are nowhere near enough, but at least they are the first positive steps towards 

recognition of the health hazards, and taken without any reference to ICNIRP.