Cell towers bad deal for neighborhoods
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This letter is in response to “140-foot cell tower proposed near pool,” May 8, 2008.
Last year T-Mobile approached our club president of the Orange Hunt Swim Club with a similar offer. The tower would have been erected directly behind my house, which concerned me and residents along my street. Through research I discovered on the Internet, I was able to convince 100 percent of the membership in attendance at our end-of-the-year general membership meeting that it was not at all in our interest to move ahead with the offer. Several key reasons are as follows:
The cell tower industry is too new to have had adequate research performed on the health and safety from magnetic rays emitted from the tower. This fact can be substantiated nearly verbatim on the Web sites of the Food and Drug Administration and American Cancer Society.
The story quotes CEO Tam Murray as saying, "Also emissions from carrier antennas are a fraction of the federal safety thresholds.” The safety thresholds are not supported by any science. I challenge you to find any supporting safety measures.
The homes immediately surrounding the monopole bear the most severe exposure to any potentially harmful electromagnetic rays. After reaching a distance of about 300 feet off the tower, the rays are said to dramatically decrease in potential health risks, but rays do project up to one mile in circumference from the tower.
You can easily find stories dealing with the negative impact on real estate from cell phone towers, with real estate professionals claiming values are impacted anywhere from 3 percent to 15 percent on the downside. Reason for this is the unknown health risks associated with the towers. There's one case that comes to my mind regarding a community in Texas where GE ended up paying in a lawsuit $1.3 million plus attorney fees from the damages a tower had on housing prices in a community.
It's also not difficult to find stories discussing abnormalities suspected to be linked to tower rays such as ringing in the ears, tenderness of soft tissue around the skull and issues of dizziness.
The most alarming matter, however, has been brought to the general public by our Congress. In 1996 the U.S. Congress passed the Telecommunications Act. In the legislation the government submitted wording that makes it virtually impossible for anyone to litigate for damages in a situation they feel may have been the result of exposure to the electromagnetic rays from a cell tower.
All of which I discuss is readily available for reading on the Internet.
I suggest doing a Google search using keys statements such as "health risks from cell phone towers" or "cell phone tower impact on real estate values."
What I find incredulous is that Tam Murray noted that with home use of wireless broadband becoming more prevalent, home buyers are looking for houses closer to towers. Heck, if you have broadband in your home, all you need to do is install a wireless router or card in your laptop.
Mark Sieracki
Springfield
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