Questions about train radio tower unanswered

RailCorp is about to construct a Digital Train Radio System Tower just south of Woy Woy station.

There are many others under construction in NSW throughout the electric railway network.

The first time we became aware of this was the receipt of a hand delivered letter telling us of the proposal.

It turns out that we received this letter because we live within 500 metres of the proposed structure.

Our initial concerns were aroused when we discovered the Digital Train Radio System was to transmit radio signals and data transmission over several frequency ranges.

Now at present our radio reception is subject to interference and we were concerned that the use of such a tower would produce radiation of a kind that could cause interference on our radio, TV and wireless internet reception.

The initial letter from RailCorp made no mention of this kind of interference.

On digging further we found a 113 page document on the RailCorp website which describes this development (called Woy Woy Four and there is a similar one for Koolewong but in them we could find no reference to the kind of possible interference that was our concern).

Discussions with others indicated to us that in some locations where the mobile phone towers were erected there was a need to replace or alter antennae.

So we are seeking from RailCorp a written guarantee in relation to potential radio-TV-internet interference.

We were initially concerned over the health aspects of continuous exposure of people to low levels of radiation such as that to be produced by the Woy Woy Four tower.

There have been a number of reports in the news over the past 10 years indicating potential links with cancer generation by electromagnetic energy of the same range of frequencies as that to be produced by the local tower.

There is a lot of material based on sound research on the internet but it would seem that at the moment there are no clear health risks associated with the radiation under concern.

However, because of the lack of research in this area the following conclusion from Australian Radiation Protection Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) should be considered.

"There is no clear evidence in the existing scientific literature that the use of mobile telephones poses a long-term public health hazard (although the possibility of a small risk cannot be ruled out)."

This conclusion is for mobile phone towers and not for towers producing the kind of radiation the Woy Woy Four tower is likely to produce.

We now remain more than a little confused over whether the transmissions will be like those from mobile phone towers.

Much of the reference work refers us to ARPANSA publications.

RailCorp says this in their Appendix.

These points are from Appendix One of the Woy Woy Four report: "An EME Environmental Report shall be produced by the proponent of development to which the Mobile Phone Network Code applies in terms of design, siting of facilities and notifications.

"The report is to be in the format required by ARPANSA.

"It is to show the predicted levels of electromagnetic energy surrounding the development comply with the safety limits imposed by the Australian Communications and Media Authority and the Electromagnetic Radiation Standard, and demonstrate compliance with the MobilePhone Networks Code."

Then we see in the same section of the report the following: "The proposal is not for a mobile phone network and is not subject to the Code for the Development of Mobile Phone Network Infrastructure commonly known as the ACIF Code."

"An EME report has been completed (we presume this was written by RailCorp) and is found at Appendix Four."

This Appendix says refer to "DTRS-R-172-EM-0001: Woy Woy Four Electro-Magnetic Energy Report (APRANSA Report)"

There is lots of verbiage in this report but in essence it says: "RF EME levels have been estimated from the proposed antennas at origin of Woy Woy Four site."

"The maximum cumulative EME level at 1.5 metres above ground level is estimated to be 0.0041 per cent of the ARPANSA public exposure limits."

This we found rather hard to understand.

We have written to RailCorp's director of the Digital Train Radio System project, posing a number of questions.

We requested a response.

The only response we received was an automated email saying we would have a response in two days.

The response is now more than two days overdue.

We need a response as the small number of people in our group need to consider RailCorp's response before we submit a considered response.

We see this as being an urgent matter as the closing date for any response is November 5.

Email, 20 Oct 2012

Bill Gates, Woy Woy