Quelle: Info erhalten von Don Maisch (yahoo@emfacts.com), Originalquelle: Sunday Mirror, 3.12.02

Allein in West Yorkshire-Gebiet 6 Brustkrebsfälle bei Polizistinnen, die ihre Funkgeräte permanent an der entsprechenden Stelle trugen

"Das Funkgerät knisterte 8 Stunden am Tag - ich dachte nie an einen möglichen Zusammenhang" - "Das kann kein Zufall sein"

Auch TETRA im Verdacht - Landesweite Untersuchungen gefordert

Originaltext (Englisch):

SUNDAY MIRROR INVESTIGATES: POLICE RADIOS GAVE US BREAST CANCER

POLICEWOMEN fear their mobile radios may have given them breast cancer. And women officers are so worried they will demand an urgent probe into the possible links at next month's Police Federation conference.

It follows a case of six women police constables suffering from cancer in the West Yorkshire area alone.

This has sparked fears that "mobile phone" type radiation emitted by radios pinned to WPCS' lapels or breast pockets may have caused tumours.

Dr Gerard Hyland, a specialist in the field from the University of Warwick, said: "The problem of police radios has been a long-standing one. "Laboratory tests have shown that the radiation they emit cause chromosomal damage to cells, which in turn can cause cancer. "With the devices attached to a lapel or next to the breast, the radiation would be going straight into that part of the body."

The Police Federation, which represents the majority of policemen and women, is now contacting police forces nationwide in a bid to collate vital medical evidence to establish any potential links.

And last night, Dr Alan Preece, Britain's foremost expert on microwave radiation, welcomed the Federation's move. Dr Preece said: "Research in this area would really put people's minds at rest - or else identify that there is a problem."

And cancer specialist Professor Ian Fentiman, of Guy's Hospital, added: "If the police are going to communicate with each other by radio and there is any risk of breast cancer, it should be looked into urgently."

Ex-chief inspector Dorothy Bell, who wore one of the radios for 25 years, first raised fears of a link, following the removal of her left breast after a cancer lump was discovered close to where she attached her transmitter. Mrs Bell, 65, of Wakefield, West Yorkshire, and thousands of other policewomen used the PYE radio system since it was first introduced in the 1960s. "It was crackling away eight hours a day," said Mrs Bell, who had a 30-year career with the West Yorkshire force, stationed at Bradford and its headquarters in Wakefield. "But I never gave it a second thought. "I know of two other policewomen who have had breast cancer and a civilian who worked alongside a communications console in headquarters developed breast cancer and then died from a brain tumour. "It can't be a coincidence, there must be some connection between this radio equipment and these cancers."

And yesterday, the husband of a former policewoman who died of breast cancer called for an investigation into the possible links between the disease and communications equipment. Coach driver Bernard Leadbetter said: "I'd welcome anything that could be done to stop other women going through the same nightmare my wife did." His wife Joan died aged 49, just two years after it was discovered she had cancer of the left breast. Mother-of-two Joan spent three years in the police, leaving the West Yorkshire force in 1973. But it was more than 20 years later, in 1994 that she was found to have the disease.

Bernard, 53, from Durkar, near Wakefield, said: "It's shocking to think there is a possibility the radio she used could have been responsible. "If there is a connection between this and breast cancer it has to be looked at."

It is understood there are six more cancer cases in the Bradford/Leeds area involving WPCs.

More than 21,000 women work for police forces across the country.

And a Police Federation spokesman said last night: "We now intend checking forces throughout Britain to see if they have any further cases of WPCs with breast cancer."

A completely new and more powerful system than PYE - called Tetra - is currently being introduced and has been installed in about half of Britain's forces...but health experts have already raised fears about it.