Radiation is too risky

So fresh fears about the possible harmful effects of radiation will hardly calm worried locals.

According to Dr Richard Albanese, a scientist who serves with the US Air Force, "phased array radiation" from radars may have carcinogenic properties that science has yet to understand.

The radars in use at Fylingdales are being updated for Mr Bush's wildly ambitious defence programme. Dr Albanese, who has been investigating an unexplained cluster of rare cancers around a similar base on Cape Cod in the US, has said he would not choose to live close to the North Yorkshire base because of uncertainty over the health risk.

York MP Hugh Bayley challenged Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon over the health fears in the Commons yesterday. As we have come to expect with Mr Hoon, such concerns were swatted away with brisk disdain. The Defence Secretary has consistently displayed a high-handed, Minister-knows-best attitude on this issue.

Fears about radiation have already been expressed in the area around Fylingdales. Locals and visitors have found that their car security systems have been activated by radio signals from the base.

Around the country, protesters have been alarmed by the siting of mobile phone masts, fearing the potentially harmful effects of radiation. It doesn't take a genius to spot that an RAF radar base is an awful lot bigger than a phone mast, with a consequent increase in potential risks.

The British end of the US missile defence project has been rail-roaded through, with the acquiescence of this Government. Proper local consultation has never occurred. What Mr Bush wants, Mr Bush gets.

Tellingly, Dr Albanese has pointed out that technology tends to lead medical understanding by "somewhere between ten and 20 years". In other words, it may be a decade or two before we fully understand the health risks of expanding Fylingdales.

That is quite a gamble.

Updated: 10:25 Tuesday, June 24, 2003