Children swap school in phone mast scare

Two families have withdrawn their children from a school because of fears over a mobile phone mast.

One mother feels so strongly about the issue she has moved them from St Mary's Catholic school in Royston, Hertfordshire, to a school of different religion, saying her children's health matters more to her than their faith. Julia Smith said: "We have had to compromise their faith because of the masts."

Lisa Waller, a second mother who took her children away from the school, said her worst fears were confirmed when she took a microwave monitor into the playground before and after the mast was switched on. "It was silent the first time but the second time it was buzzing really loudly," she said. "We felt we didn't have any choice but to move the boys."

The mothers spoke out as Sir William Stewart, the man the Government charged to investigate the safety of mobi le phones, admitted he would not put a phone mast near a school.

Meanwhile, the Standard established there are at least two other South-East schools battling against phone companies. At Elmhurst School in South Croydon parents are fighting Vodafone's plans for a 12m mast a football pitch's length away from the school and at St Augustine's Priory in Ealing, parents are fighting TMobile's plans to build a mast 300 feet away.

The protests come as leading government scientists admit more research is needed if phones are to be given a clean bill of health.

Dr Jill Meara, the deputy director of the National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB) which advises the Government on phone safety, said: "There are real symptoms out there, but the studies have not been conclusive yet."

The Mobile Operators Association in Britain, which represents operators on health and planning, played down the health fears. Its executive director Mike Dolan said: "The key point of the NRPB advice is that there is no hard information linking the use of mobile telephony with adverse health effects."

According to a Standard report, schools in some parts of central London have as many as 80 masts built or planned nearby. A quarter of primary school children are believed to own a mobile, while 90 per cent of 11 to 16-year-olds have one.