Up to 150 parents and children held a protest meeting at a primary school in Dunmore East, Co Waterford, yesterday morning to highlight their concerns over the health implications of microwave radiation from MMDS television equipment operating near the school.
The demonstration centred on the four-teacher Killea Boys' National School which has 109 pupils aged from five to 12 years. The group paraded to a farm 200 yards away and handed in a letter of protest to the farmer on whose buildings the MMDS antennae are erected.
All but a handful of pupils were withdrawn from the school for the day by their parents to emphasise their concerns. In a gesture of support for the protest, students were also withdrawn for the day from a local girls' school. The protest was organised by the Dunmore East Anti-MMDS Association which was formed about three weeks ago in response to growing concerns that the MMDS system posed a threat to the health of the children and of the community in general.
A spokesman for the association, Mr David Nash, said the MMDS equipment had been erected near the school last April without consultation with the local community. When it came to their attention, members of the community complained to Waterford County Council that planning permission had not been sought.
Subsequently, there was an application by the landowner for permission to retain the equipment, and this was granted by the council last month. The association has now lodged an appeal with An Bord Pleanala against this planning permission and also sought an oral hearing.
Mr Nash said the World Health Organisation had begun a five-year in-depth study of the effects of low-level electromagnetic radiation on health, "and we feel that until the results of that research are available the thing should be shut down".
Addressing yesterday's protest meeting, Mr Nash claimed there was an abundance of evidence from respected international scientific sources that exposure to such radiation had a biological impact.
The association has sent letters to the Ministers for Health and Education expressing fears of potential health hazards ranging from carcinogenic implications to foetal abnormalities and effects on the immune and central nervous system, as well as possible environmental and ecological damage.
Meanwhile, a decision by the Waterford County Manager, Mr Donal Connolly, to grant planning permission to Telecom Eireann to erect a 25-metre telecommunications mast on a silo building in the centre of Dungarvan has been upheld by An Bord Pleanala.
The manager's decision had been appealed to the board by a local organisation, the Committee for a Microwave Mast Free Dungarvan, which has strenuously opposed the project on health grounds.