THOUSANDS of police officers could be putting their health at risk because of ongoing problems with controversial police radio system Airwave, it has been claimed.

Union bosses claim the system is still plagued with problems despite being given the green light more than five months ago.

Police claimed the unique benefits of the digital system would help forces to improve their effectiveness.

But the Lancashire Police Federation say they are still concerned about the system's safety, coverage and some design flaws.

Lancashire's neighbouring force Greater Manchester Police have already abandoned Airwave and gone back to the old analogue radio system because they encountered so many problems.

Lancashire Police today defended the system although admitted they were experiencing some problems.

One of the most serious problems is the so-called "spiking", a high pitched screech emitted over the radios mainly heard by operators in police communication rooms.The phenomenon is now so bad, and is getting worse, that union bosses are keeping a record of spiking incidents which may be referred to the Health and Safety Executive.

Lancashire Federation Chairman Steve Edwards said: "The problem does appear to be getting more prevalent and we are extremely concerned that it could cause damage to the hearing of officers and civilian support staff."

But David Brindle, project director for Lancashire Constabulary in charge of implementing the Airwave system, said the technology was there to improve health and safety and was a superior to the old system.

He said: "Spiking is a problem at the moment and we have the engineers looking at ways to resolve that. We are also looking at research to see how spiking affects the health and safety of our officers.

"But from the constabulary's point of view we would never implement anything which we thought was harmful.

"We have taken the best advice which indicates there is not a problem with the system, although we are aware that certain views think there is. "Airwave is there to assist our officers and improve their safety.

"There are no 'blackspots' like there are on analogue radios meaning loss of communication and the emergency buttons allow them to call for help wherever they are."

Other ongoing problems with Airwave include poor ground to air communication, and interference with electronic equipment.

Officers have been forced to go back to using old fashioned breathalyser equipment known as "bag and tube" as Airwave interferes with modern systems.