Monday  18 September  2006

Inquiry into BBC cluster of brain tumours

HEALTH and safety officials are investigating a cluster of brain tumours among cameramen who worked at the Pebble Mill studios in Birmingham.

The cases sparked fears that radiation from video camera viewfinders may be linked to the tumours.

However, the BBC played down the concerns, saying it had investigated and found no link between equipment and brain-tumour risk.

Last week, John Howcroft, a health and safety official for the Broadcasting Entertainment Cinematograph and Theatre Union, sent a memo to staff about the brain tumour cases at the old studios.

It read:
"This number seems too high to be a coincidence and preliminary discussions are focusing on radiation from viewfinders as a possible cause."

Pebble Mill studios: Closure will mean the loss of 90 jobs

Tuesday, 22 August 2000

The BBC has announced it is to close its two main studios at Pebble Mill which could mark the end of production at the famous Birmingham site.

The studios staged a number of BBC shows, most famously the Pebble Mill at One lunchtime chat show, which ran from 1973 to 1986.

Pebble Mill also produced the popular TV dramas
"Dalziel and Pascoe" and "Dangerfield", as well as the long-running radio soap "The Archers".

Pebble Mill studios launched the television career of gardener Alan Titchmarsh.

Alan Titchmarsh:
Made his name at Pebble Mill

OMEGA-NEWS

17  September  2006  from  On The Wires

Brain tumour cluster in video cameramen at
BBC Pebble Mill studios

The BBC was at the centre of a cancer scare last night after six cameramen who worked at the Pebble Mill studios were found to have brain tumours.

Experts fear that radiation from video camera viewfinders may have caused the six men, who had been employed at the Birmingham centre, to develop tumours.

Worried bosses fired off an urgent memo requesting the names of other staff suffering from similar complaints, even if they were no longer working for the corporation.

The memo, sent out by health and safety official for the Broadcasting Entertainment Cinematograph and Theatre Union John Howcroft, read:
"Around six ex-cameramen have developed brain tumours.
"This number seems too high to be a coincidence and preliminary discussions are focusing on radiation from viewfinders as a possible cause.
"We need to determine how widespread this problem is.
"If any of you are aware of camera operators with the condition, could you send me all the information you have at the earliest opportunity."

The six workers all worked at the now defunct Pebble Mill TV complex. The corporation has since moved into Birmingham's new Mailbox shopping mall site.

But further inquiries have been ordered because identical camera equipment has been used for years at other BBC studios across the country.

High levels of radiation emitted from powerful electronics can damage the brain but a TV camera viewfinder normally emits only low, safe levels.

One radiation expert said last night: "There is a link between exposure to radiation and tumours but the levels emitted by a TV camera would, in normal circumstances, be too low. "If cameras are linked to these cases then something has gone seriously wrong." Radiation can cause tumours by disrupting the genetic make-up of biological cells, making them more susceptible to aggressive cancers.

A BBC spokesman last night played down any possible links between electronic equipment and cancer. "We have found no link between camera equipment and the incidence of brain tumours but we are asking any concerned staff to come forward," he said. Mr Howcroft declined to comment on his department's memo.

Email from  UK film-maker Sarah Dacre

Tuesday  17  October  2006

Re: Brain tumour cluster in BBC video cameramen

Hi,

After we had finished filming our golf TV series, A Golfer's Travels with Peter Alliss in 1997, our second camera man who was otherwise very health, fit and newly third time married had a cerebral aneurysm.  His claim to fame was that his two eyes focussed differently at the same time to allow him to focus on the golf ball trajectory, he could track the ball through the view finder and look ahead with his other eye.

When he had his haemhorrage I thought it somewhat odd and connected it to this unusual brain adjustment which permitted him to be the best in his field.

I will ask my production colleagues and get back on any unusual findings.

But at the Resurgence show in Oxford last month, I spoke to the camera man there and he mentioned that several of his colleagues working for his production team had died of brain tumours at relatively young ages and that he had inherited one of their mobile phones which he had declined to use.

He did comment that many of his mates had developed rheumatism from all their proximity to equipment.

With kind regards

Sarah Dacre  MSc ACIB