POLICE behaviour at the G20 protests in London could have been caused by the officers' Tetra Airwave radios interfering with their brainwaves according to Barrie Trower, an independent research scientist.

An article by Sarah Bebbington in this week’s Police Review reports Trower’s concerns.   Apparently, the Independent Police Complaints Commission has received 128 complaints about police officers during the protests, 46 of which are being investigated. Two Met officers have been suspended and two are on restricted duties, the force said.   Trower has compiled a report on Tetra for the IPCC and has been in contact with a senior Met officer.

Tetra radios send out amplitude modulated microwave radiation at a greater strength than the brain's natural rhythm at virtually the same frequency.  “You could not have picked a worse frequency for the police,” says Trower.  “If you put other waves through the brain, you end up with entrainment, which can cause you to do something you are not programmed to do.   Entrainment can cause violent behaviour, aggression, sleeplessness, irritability or agitation.”  Many police officers equipped with live radios were held in metal vans for hours and therefore subject to considerable pulsed microwave radiation in an enclosed environment for an extended period before they were needed at the G20 protests and then suddenly called upon to exercise crowd control.

Mr Trower, who has previously advised the Police Federation of England and Wales on the dangers of Tetra, urges the officers under investigation to have a brain scan to check that their behaviour has not been an early sign of a brain tumour.

Not surprisingly, Trower's claims have been denied by ACPO, Airwave and the National Policing Improvement Agency.   All bodies with vested interests, of course.  A spokeswoman for Airwave says, 'Many independent scientific panels around the world, such as the National Radiological Protection Board, have reached the same general conclusion - that there is no established evidence of any adverse health effects from exposure to radio waves. Nice to be up to date given that the Board ceased to exist 4 years ago!

Mast Sanity calls for a full, independent, investigation into the association between the use of Tetra Airwave radios and the effects of associated radiation on the brain and its functions.