THE recent death of a 55-year-old from cancer in a residential estate in Dongmen in Luohu District has refreshed residents longtime concern about a power transmission tower in the estate.
Residents had long suspected that medium waves emitted by the transmission tower was behind a high incidence of cancer on the estate where 10 people had died of cancer in the past 10 years, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported yesterday.
The tower belonged to the Shenzhen medium wave relay station which had installed another two transmission towers in the People s Park in Luohu.
My knowledge and experience indicates that transmission towers have a negative effect on people s health, said Zhao Fuqin, a former electronics technician.
There were four transmission towers before the construction of the residential estate, said He Guangfu, who arrived in Shenzhen in 1980 and lives on the estate.
One tower was demolished in 1997 to make way for property development.
The estate residents began demanding the tower be relocated in 2005.
The city s environment authority conducted inspections between 2005 and 2010 showing the radiation levels on the estate exceeded national standards.
When the four transmission towers went up, the Dongmen area was barren land. However, Dongmen now has a high population density, said Liang Hongli, chief of the relay station.
Residents were told in February last year that the towers would be relocated at the end of last year but they were still there.
A new site is being prepared on barren land in Shiyan in Bao an District, which takes time and needs government investment, Liang said.
Liang said, however, the towers would be relocated next year.
He denied any direct connection between the cancers and the medium waves emitted by the towers, saying engineers working in the relay station were closest to the radiation source but none had developed cancer.
Shen Weixi, director of the oncology department of Shenzhen People s Hospital, said the incidence of cancer on the estate was normal and below the city average.
In Shenzhen, 155 people per 100,000 people develop cancer each year, according to Shen.
Because most of the residents on the estate were elderly people, they were more prone to develop cancer, Shen said.
(Martin Li)
