The Community Against Radiation Emissions (CARE) hit back at Telecommunications Minister Renee Webb's claim that a recent survey done on the existing telecommunication towers falls within safety levels.

Last Friday, in a ministerial statement to the House of Assembly, Ms Webb revealed the findings of a radiation frequency (RF) electromagnetic survey, that was carried out by Arizona-based scientist Roger Choquette.

She noted the 16 towers erected around the Island, which are used for cell phones and other telecommunications functions, adhere to safe and acceptable RF levels.

Ms Webb also noted that the conclusions of the report assured that the levels fell well within the guidelines set by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) - in fact less than 5 percent of what is proposed.

But CARE spokesman, Stephen Thomson said he has difficulty understanding why Government would base a survey on the recommendations and guidelines of the US Governmental agency.

He argued that testing should have been carried out by European or British based scientific agencies, because they have stricter guidelines than the US.

"The Government on the one hand criticises America and on the other hand they follow the US guidelines," he said. "The FCC has the most lax and weakest electromagnetic emissions levels in the world.

"The word safe should have never been used," he said. "I complement the current Government that they are spending the time to measure the emission levels, but to use the word safe is wrong. No level of electromagneticism should ever be called safe."

And Mr. Thomson took issue with Government's hiring of Mr. Choquette, claiming that he is not objective enough to conduct such a survey.

"This guy they brought in was recommended by the telecommunications industry itself," he said. "They should have brought in someone more neutral. No scientist would say that electromagnetic emissions are safe."

He also noted that if the FCC guidelines are to be followed by the Department of Telecommunications, then Government should take serious consideration to what they allow the maximum amount of time for a person to be around a live tower.

"They (FCC) say the most acceptable amount of time for a person to be around a live tower is six minutes," he said. "So why are they allowing people to live only 20 feet away from these things, 24 hours a day?"

He continued: "We propose that Government mandate that people share towers and that there should only be 3 or 4 towers. In the US there are towers placed 15 to 20 miles of each other - here you have them every four miles - that's too much."

But when contacted last night Ms Webb explained her Government is proactive about reducing the amount of towers in the Island and she defended the Government's choice of using the guidelines of the FCC.

She said: "I think that Americans are just as concerned as we are about the RF emission levels in the environment. If they say this is the standard, then we don't question the standard and we are satisfied. Scientists give different opinions, we can only go by the information that is given. Last time I checked, he (Mr. Thomson) wasn't a scientist.

"We have organised a sharing committee to address the concerns of the amount of towers on the Island. And this Government has forced owners of towers to share their towers. We are committed to the fact that we don't want anymore towers in the Island. That's what we've done to comply, to be safe wherever possible and we are proactive in this."