THE potential dangers of phone mast radiation were exposed during a weekend of tests across Burnley.

Campaign group Together Against Masts (TAM) used a special tool to measure radiation levels in homes.

Group spokesman Dennis Cannon, said: "Our group has two main concerns. Firstly, the insensitive siting of masts. We believe there are serious potential health hazards from this.

"Secondly, the use of mobile telephones by young people and the way phones are marketed at the young. We think calls should be limited and marketing should be more responsible.

"We have been to a number of homes and tested for radiation and, if we have found there to be a problem, have suggested ways of trying to limit the risks."

The group used an accousticom instrument to measure radiation levels in and around homes and said they had found higher than normal levels of radiation in some homes.

Suggestions of how to limit the danger included installing special netting to filter out radiation waves and ensuring that beds and chairs were not in direct radiation wave paths.

The equipment was provided by psychotherapist Sue Webster, of national pressure group Mast Sanity, who travels across the country conducting tests and compiling evidence of cancer cluster groups near phone masts.

She said: "People are very worried about the problem of radiation in homes, not just from mobile homes but from digital phones and microwave ovens and people need to be aware that these things can cause serious illness. This problem is not recognised enough by the authorities but one day it will be seen as a bigger problem than that caused by asbestos."