MEDIA RELEASE 23 October 08
Vector vetoes kindergarten

The Green Party is stunned to learn that parent representatives of the Titirangi Kindergarten were blocked by a row of security guards from attending Vector’s Annual General Meeting today.

The Kindergarten has been involved for months in discussions with Vector and Waitakere City Council over the proposal to locate an electricity substation right next door. Parents with children at the Kindergarten are afraid and angry at the plans, which would mean their pre-schoolers being exposed to potentially dangerous levels of Electro Magnetic Frequencies (EMFs) on a daily basis. EMFs are widely suspected of increasing the incidence of cancers such childhood leukaemia. Regulation in New Zealand lags behind places such as Germany, Sweden and California where a more precautionary approach is taken. The Titirangi community want Vector to find an alternative site.

“The Kindergarten has been waiting for months for an answer from Vector and has acted with amazing restraint, considering the potential risk to the children and the cost to their long-established facility,” says Green MP and health spokesperson, Sue Kedgley. “I am appalled that Vector would bar them from the meeting. It’s time Vector listened to the community’s concerns seriously and put the health of our children ahead of corporate profits.” The Kindergarten has been operating successfully at its South Titirangi Road location since 1973.

“It’s especially important that we take a precautionary approach and minimise exposure to radiation for children and pregnant women,” says local Green Party candidate, Kath Dewar, who first wrote to Vector about this issue at the beginning of August. “Vector have an appalling track-record on this one, giving contradictory information to neighbours about emission levels and failing to provide the Ministry of Health with enough information to make an assessment of the impacts. Barring the Kindergarten from their AGM isn’t going to make the problem go away.”

The Green Party wants a far more precautionary approach to the possible health effects of electromagnetic radiation in New Zealand, and is calling for an independent committee to review the EMF limits set by the National Radiation Laboratory.

ENDS

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