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It’s a Crime! |
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Lancashire Crime Scene Investigator
Dies of Throat Cancer - Official
(Known to be TETRA Handset User) |
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Victim is Understood to Have Considered TETRA Responsible |
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Why Are The Official ‘Facts’ So Inconsistent?? |
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UPDATE 3/8/04 |
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I posted this item about a year ago, and up until
last week had heard no more on it. Then, just a few days ago another
email came into my hands from a totally different source - a Police
Inspector in Sussex associated with the Airwave Project there. |
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This officer’s email contained much information of
considerable interest and significance, including a number of
observations relating to this episode involving a CSI in Lancashire. |
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The following is an extract from the Inspector’s
email: |
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“I have been in contact with Lancashire and confirmed
that everybody there, both Police and support staff, do use TETRA. The
issue around the scenes of crime officers related to a single incident
when one member of staff received an electric shock when handling his
radio with metallic powder (actually very fine iron filings) on his
gloves. This has never been replicated, and I am told that nobody there
ever actually refused to use a radio handset. |
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I have confirmed that the member of the team who had
contracted throat cancer was indeed diagnosed with the condition before
the inception of Airwave. |
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Regrettably he has since died.” |
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This extract raises more questions than it answers.
First, we’re told that the CSI who died “was ... diagnosed with the
condition before the inception of Airwave.” This clearly directly
contradicts the information provided in a series of emails by my
contact, another CSI with the same force. More than that, it’s difficult
to see how that claim can be squared with the cutting from the
Divisional Newsletter below. This carries the clear implication that the
CSIs had been using TETRA for some time but that the cancer had only
just been diagnosed and the CSI in question was only now undergoing
“extensive surgery” - hardly a sign that it’d been known about for quite
a while. |
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Second we’re told in the Divisional Newsletter - by
the Chief Superintendent on the spot - that the issue was ’the explosive
nature of the metallic powders that they use’ - again, in direct
conflict with my contact’s account of the facts. The Inspector’s
version, as well as informing us that these powders are actually iron
filings - explosive? - corrects the account from the man on the spot,
giving us the official line that it wasn’t explosions but electric
shocks that the CSIs were bothered about. Through gloves. Gloves
presumably made of latex or some plastic-based compound - not materials
notable for their properties of conducting electric shocks. |
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Call me sceptical, but for me it just doesn’t wash.
There seems to be far too much juggling around just to try and put a gap
between two facts - the fact that the CSIs didn’t want to go on using
TETRA and the fact that one of their number had contracted throat
cancer. Even the Divisional Newsletter clearly acknowledges that these
two facts were definitely linked in the minds of police officers and
staff there - you don’t try to ’dispel a rumour’ that no-one is taking
seriously (you don’t need to). |
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No, the emails from my CSI contact and the undisputed
facts (as opposed to the attempted ‘explanations’) in the Divisional
Newsletter form a far more coherent and consistent picture than the
official sanitised version (or versions - take your pick). Add to that
this observation in my contact’s closing paragraph and the whole can of
worms DEMANDS a closer investigation: |
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“The organisation as a whole still has a stranglehold
over its staff and it is near impossible to find out about others who
are just as worried. My own boss doesn't like us to talk about it within
the office - which is ludicrous really. ” |
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The fact is that someone has died - that has been
officially confirmed. The circumstances surrounding that death are, to
put it mildly, unusual. Serving police officers and support staff, and
the public, have a right to know how and why this happened. The official
‘explanations’ are inadequate and inconsistent. |
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I would also like to know why my CSI contact, having
indicated their intention (as a group) to take action, suddenly ceased
communicating in a way that was totally out of character with previous
correspondence - but totally in keeping with their observation quoted
above. |
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A DEATH WITHOUT A PLAUSIBLE EXPLANATION IS AN OUTRAGE
IN ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. WHEN THAT DEATH IS IN THE SERVICE OF LAW AND
ORDER, IT’S DOUBLY SO. |
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Original Article, Posted Summer 2003 |
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I offer, without any further comment of my own (I
don’t think any is needed) extracts from emails received from one
contact in Lancashire. The first is dated 7th April 2003, the last 1st
May. The last I heard was that strong pressure was being put on this
person and their colleagues not to talk about the situation - not even
between themselves. Then (like many such contacts) the ’line’ suddenly
went dead and I received no further replies to emails. |
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“I am a Crime Scene Examiner for Lancashire Police -
who as you will know were the first to use tetra. We have been concerned
about the health risks since implementation but getting anything done
over it is extremely difficult ...” |
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“We believe we are even more vulnerable to the
effects as we use our own vehicles and not police vehicles - no
handsfree or external aerial. There are ... of us based in ..... and
[all but one] of us are suffering from symptoms ranging from
headaches/toothache/neuralgia to high blood pressure and even a
cancerous tumour in the throat. ” |
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“It is the tumour which has finally been the last straw and today we have refused to use them in our vehicles and at scenes ( we use metallic fingerprint powders).“
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“We are a group of people who love our job and we are
not "trouble makers" - but we are genuine in our belief that these
radios are killing us.“ |
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“I have attached a page from our monthly divisional
newsletter for your interest, with the relevant bit marked, regarding
our use of the radios.” |
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[N.B. CSI = Crime Scene Investigator]
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