Cellphone Safety: Industry Pushes to Strip Local Control of High Speed Networks
The Environmental Working Group Analysis of a California Bill to put small cells wireless facilities in neighborhood rights of ways.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 31, 2017
The cellphone industry is pushing laws to take away local governments’ rights to decide whether or where to allow facilities for high-speed wireless networks that use a technology whose health effects have not been studied.
Legislation proposed in California, Florida, Ohio, Texas and some other states would severely restrict cities’ and counties’ authority to regulate the placement of so-called small cell wireless facilities, such as those to used to facilitate new 5G technology. The bill under consideration in California would mandate that local governments allow telecommunications companies to place such facilities in public rights of way in residential areas, as well as anywhere in a commercial or industrial zone – even if officials have concerns about proximity to homes, schools and hospitals.
For more than a decade, the health impacts of cellular transmissions have been hotly debated, in light of studies that raise real concerns about the effects of radio frequency radiation on people. Those studies have focused on older 2G and 4G technology, but we are moving into uncharted territory with 5G, which has different wavelengths and energy levels.
A $25 million multiyear National Toxicology Program study released in 2016 showed male rats exposed to radio frequency radiation in the 2G range, equivalent to what a heavy cellphone user receives, had a greater chance of being diagnosed with a brain cancer called malignant glioma, and both sexes of rats showed higher rates of developing a heart tumor. The results appear to confirm human evidence used by the World Health Organization in declaring cellphone radiation a possible carcinogen.
Because of these concerns, EWG opposes the California legislation. In a letter to its author, Sen. Ben Hueso, EWG’s California Director of Government Affairs Bill Allayaud wrote:
Local governments must be able to evaluate science and respond to the wishes of their citizens and neighborhoods before permits are issued for this technology and SB 649 short-circuits that process. This includes important decisions about locating the technology near homes, schools, and hospitals. We simply cannot rely upon the word of the Federal Communications Commission (in terms of safety standards) to protect the health of Californians.
Notably, the bill exempts fire stations from the forced siting of 5G technology. In 2004, the International Association of Fire Fighters adopted a policy of no cellphone towers on fire station properties because health concerns. Firefighters have chronicled health impacts from closely located cell towers, including fatigue, headaches, “brain fog,” and more serious conditions. Firefighters’ health concerns are respected by this bill, but everyone else’s should be too.
Read the whole story at http://www.ewg.org/enviroblog/2017/08/cellphone-safety-industry-pushes-strip-local-control-high-speed-networks#.WcETya2ZN-U
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