Congratulations to Arun District Council for suspending planning permission for mobile phone masts, including the rapidly unfurling emergency services transmitter system TETRA, until convinced of their safety (The Argus, October 24).

Contrast this with Brighton and Hove City Council which has recklessly permitted the erection of more than 60 masts in the city and a TETRA (on top of Brighton police station) with no consideration for the possible effects on people's health.

There is evidence of serious health effects from these masts and from mobile and digital cordless phones.

Campaign group Mast Sanity details 18 ill-health clusters in the UK, showing massive increases in cancers, tumours, brain haemorrages, immune problems, epilepsy, hormone imbalances and fatigue within approximately 500 metres of masts after their erection.

In 1999, the Government's own Stewart report rejected TETRA and recommended masts should not be sited near schools and mobiles should be used by children under 16 only in emergencies.

These recommendations are still ignored in the UK while in Bangladesh and Russia mobiles for under-16s and in continental Europe TETRA have been banned for safety reasons.

Researchers say thousands of children growing up near masts will develop serious health problems in middle age and those using mobiles regularly run high risks of premature senility as early as their 30s.

Mast Sanity is calling for all transmitters in or near residential areas or schools to be switched off until they can be proven safe.

-Graham Parfitt, Brighton