THE STAPLE Hill Estate, Bristol, is an unassuming sort of place. The low-rise red-brick blocks are scrupulously clean and surrounded by neatly clipped lawns, elm trees and privet hedges. It's far from grand, but there's none of the graffiti, vandalism and litter that blight estates nearby.

Many of the residents modest, hardworking families and pensioners have lived here since it was first built by the council in 1976.

Yet the peace here has been shattered in recent months by an unexplained string of cancer cases in one block, Berkley House. Seven people have been struck down with the disease in as many years, with three dead.

The cancer rate on the top floor where residents of five of the eight flats have been affected, including the three who died is ten times the national average.

The building has been melodramatically dubbed The Tower of Doom by the local press. Residents and science experts believe the illness has been caused by two mobile phone masts, erected in 1994, on its roof.

The toll is certainly grim: Barbara Wood, 79, died in 2004, 18 months after being diagnosed with breast cancer. Two years earlier, Joyce Davies, 71, lost her battle with the same disease, first diagnosed in 1999. Barbara Watts, 78, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2000, and Bernice Mitchell, 68, was diagnosed with cancer of the uterus in October 2003.

Last year both Hazel Frape, 62, and 90- year-old Phyllis Smith, were diagnosed with breast cancer. Two other residents in other blocks, who do not wish their names to be made public, have the disease: one is a woman with breast cancer, the other a man with bowel cancer.

Others have complained of terrible headaches and unexplained ailments.

The most recent death was that of John Llewellin, 63, who died of bowel cancer in July. A fit and healthy non-smoker who regularly played cricket and football, he'd barely missed a day of work in his life.

'It was rare for John to even have a cold,' says his widow, Moira, 58. 'We were married for 27 years, and aside from the odd sports injury, he was never ill. He'd been complaining of pain and problems with his bowels diarrhoea and constipation for a month or so before he went to the doctor.' In January last year, John was referred to specialists for further investigation. and was diagnosed with aggressive bowel cancer with secondary liver tumours.

'When we were told the cancer was so advanced that they couldn't operate, we were both stunned into silence,' recalls Moira. 'No one else in his family had had bowel cancer. I kept thinking: why him?' The biggest single risk factor associated with bowel cancer is age: eight out of ten people diagnosed with the disease are over 60. Although his father died of liver cancer, John wasn't overweight and didn't suffer from diabetes, ulcerative colitis, or Crohn's disease, all of which would predispose him to bowel cancer.

Nine months of chemotherapy and radiotherapy failed to halt the progress of the tumour.

'It broke me to see him so frail,' says Moira, who gave up her job in the accounts department of a local courier company to become a full-time carer to her husband.'The chemotherapy tore him apart. His hands shook terribly; he could barely hold a cup of water to his lips. When we went out, he would cling to my arm because he became so unsure of his balance. He wasted away before me.'

EVENTUALLY, it didn't seem worth suffering the side-effects when there was no improvement.

So in February this year, the couple decided to cease treatment. On July 18 John collapsed and was rushed into hospital. Less than 24 hours later he was dead.

'I'd prepared for it mentally, but when it happened, I couldn't believe it. I still can't,' says Moira. 'It's awful to think that I could have lost my husband, and that others have died, because of those phone masts being there.' Six months ago, Berkley House topfloor resident Doreen Sheppard, 74, began campaigning in earnest to have the masts removed after she discovered that phone company O2 was planning to erect a third pylon on the roof.

'It wasn't until last year when John Llewellin and Hazel Frape were diagnosed that it dawned on me that it wasn't usual for so many people so close together to have cancer,' she says.

'I'm convinced that it's more than just a coincidence. It makes me sick to my stomach to think that the phone masts could be the cause of all this. The council is making money, and the mobile phone companies are making money while people here are dying.' Orange and Vodafone pay the council about £3,000 'rent' per month to use the roof of Berkley House. A month ago, after a drawn-out campaign by residents, Orange agreed to remove its mast but it won't come down for at least another year. The other mast belongs to Vodafone, which has no plans to remove it.

Berkley House isn't the first instance of cancer cases 'clustered' around mobile phone masts. In 2003 it was reported that five women who all lived within 1,500 yards of a 22ft mast in the village of Wishaw, near Sutton Coldfield, West Midlands, got breast cancer.

There was also a case of cervical cancer, and two men diagnosed with tumours of the bladder and spine. Three-quarters of the 47 residents in the community claimed to be affected in some way.

CARNARVON Road, near Epping Forest, East London, became known locally as 'Cancer Street' in 2002 after five residents developed the disease in the space of seven years. All lived within 30 yards of a three-storey building with 16 phone masts on its roof.

Last year, an 82ft antenna erected in 1993 on Shooters Hill, Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, was blamed for seven deaths from cancer and brain haemorrhages, and 20 illnesses. Residents were said to have lined their lofts and walls with tinfoil in a futile attempt to protect themselves from the microwaves emitted by the masts, which can penetrate five feet of solid brick wall.

Browse the internet and there are myriad products for sale which claim to 'neutralise' electromagnetic and microwave radiation in the home, from strange 'black boxes' to patches worn on the body. Other companies go further, offering to install highly expensive leadlined walls, and window fittings similar to those used in industry.

However, despite growing numbers of people blaming radiation for their health problems and some scientists believe there could be a link there is no direct evidence that it causes cancer. So is it all just mass hysteria? Researchers in Germany in 2004 exposed human tissue (in Petri dishes) to mobile phone signals and found the low-power microwaves emitted can damage DNA, potentially causing cancer and other illnesses. But despite a huge amount of research, no studies have found any link between radiation from mobile phone masts, or mobile phone use, and illness in humans. However, all the reviews published point out that mobiles have only been in widespread use for ten years or so, therefore the long-term effects are still unknown.

The proliferation of wireless computer internet connections (WiFi), which uses the same technology as mobile phones, in schools and homes has raised further health concerns.

In 2005, a Daily Mail investigation revealed that a third of schools in British towns and cities have a mobile phone mast within 200 metres of the main buildings and playgrounds. That year Sir William Stewart, head of the National Radiological Protection Board (now the Health Protection Agency) said: 'I would prefer them not to be near schools.' Echoing his concerns, Professor Lawrie Challis, chairman of the Mobile Telecommunications and Health Research programme said that while there was no hard evidence that mobile phone radiation was a health risk: 'I would certainly not wish my own grandchildren to use mobile phones more than they had to.' While the effects of microwaves on the human body are not yet known for certain, some scientists theorise that the radiation disrupts the immune system, causing a build-up of toxins leading to cancer and other problems.

However, this has not yet been proven.

Having visited and studied the sites of many of these outbreaks, physicist Dr John Walker, science advisor to the anti-mast campaign group SCRAM, is convinced that radiation from nearby mobile phone masts is to blame.

'In every case I've studied, there are higher than normal incidences of brain haemorrhages, cancer, skin conditions, nausea and sleeplessness to name just a few. There is no doubt in my mind that these masts cause cancer. The more masts there are, the more illness we will see. It's a health disaster on a huge scale waiting to happen.' There are 35,000 or so mobile phone masts in the UK at present, 10,000 or so of which are in cities, towns or villages.

Officially, the World Health Organisation (WHO) says they are not a health risk. Indeed, when you look at the statistics, cancer rates among mobile phone users and people who live close to masts are the same as for the rest of the population. So how can we explain these so-called 'cancer clusters'? Radiation scientist Dr Michael Clark, science spokesman for the Health Protection Agency explains: 'Strictly, a cancer cluster is defined as a higher than normal amount of people living close together, or in the same workplace, all developing the same type of cancer, indicating the possibility of a common cause. We receive reports from residents about cases of cancer apparently clustered around power stations, landfill sites, incinerators, TV and radio transmitters, electricity pylons and mobile phone masts.

'The HPA takes these reports extremely seriously, but certain medical and scientific criteria must be met to prove it is a cancer cluster and warrants a full investigation to determine the cause. And, often, when epidemiologists and other medical experts look closely at such reports, they discover they aren't really clusters at all.' Statistically, cancer is extremely common: one in three of us will suffer from it during our lives, and one in four of us will die from the disease. There are also other factors which could mean an incident that appears to be a cluster is, in fact, not one.

'If the people in an alleged cluster are suffering from different types of cancer, this is not strictly a cluster from a scientific point of view,' says Dr Clark. 'The risk factors for lung cancer CLUSTERS? are not the same as those for breast cancer, or for kidney cancer, and so on.

'As we get older, the chances of getting cancer increase, too, so it is simply more common in people over 65.

Using this sort of information, it's easy to see how an old people's home could appear to be a cluster when actually it isn't. Even if a true cluster is found, it is often very hard to conclusively agree on a cause.' One example of this is a genuine cluster discovered in Brisbane, Australia, where it was reported that 15 employees of an Australian Broadcasting Corporation studio had been diagnosed with breast cancer. A panel of medical experts, convened last year, could not find a cause for the cluster at the work site, which had a cancer rate up to 11 times higher than the norm.

Yet the possibility that mobile phones or phone masts could create a cancer risk cannot be ruled out.

'Currently, there is no hard evidence that they cause cancer or any other illness,' says Dr Clark. 'However, this is new technology, and we don't know about possible long-term effects yet.' Good Health contacted Orange to ask why, if pylons are harmless, the company has agreed to take its down from the roof of Berkley House.

Spokesman Martin Grey says: 'There have now been over 30 independent expert review reports published during the past six years, including two by the UK Health Protection Agency. In addition, Ofcom has undertaken more than 500 independent audits of base stations across the length and breadth of the UK. Our lease at Berkley House has come to an end and we are now seeking an alternative site.' A spokesperson for Vodafone, which owns the other mast, says: 'Considering the very low exposure levels and the scientific evidence available to date, it appears highly unlikely that the weak signals people are exposed to from base stations could cause s cancer or other health effects. The WHO recommends that there be no restrictions on the siting of radio base stations.' So, is Berkley House the site of a cancer cluster, or simply a series of tragic coincidences? 'We asked the oncologists whether there was any link between John's cancer and the masts, and they said no,' says Moira Llewellin. 'But I'm not so sure; it's happened in other places.

Until they know for sure whether there are risks, they shouldn't have them near people. If it's not the masts, what is causing all these cancers?'

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