Small Cell Towers Threaten the Health of Montgomery County Residents

Small Cell Towers Threaten the Health of Montgomery County Residents

Ronald M. Powell, Ph.D.

Montgomery County is under assault by the providers of multiple wireless technologies that pose serious threats to the public health.  The newest and greatest wireless threat is the installation of so-called small cell towers.  These towers will be placed up and down the streets of the County, even in residential areas.  Right now, the County is on the verge of making its biggest wireless mistake yet:  facilitating the installation of these small cell towers.  This mistake will haunt the County for years to come.

The providers of small cell towers and the associated wireless services are attempting to neutralize public objection to the installation of these additional cell towers.  Their approach is to lobby every level of government -- Federal, state, and local -- to implement laws or regulations that OVERRIDE the rights of the lower levels of government to resist.  The providers used this tactic successfully in the past when the Federal Government implemented the 1996 Telecommunications Act.  That act places certain limits on the ability of state and local governments to curb the installation of cell towers.

Here, in brief, is why the installation of more cell towers, whether small cell or large cell, should be resisted by every means possible:

• The international biomedical research literature shows that radiofrequency radiation, which is the type of radiation produced by cell towers and cell phones, is harmful to human health in multiple ways.
• The radiation from each cell tower strikes everyone within the vicinity of that tower.  This radiation passes through homes and hits pregnant mothers and their unborn children, babies in cribs, children playing in the home or in the yard, teenagers, adults, the elderly, the chronically ill, and the disabled, without regard to the risk to each of them from such exposure.
• Cellular radiation has been linked to two types of malignant cancer by both the World Health Organization and the National Toxicology Program at the National Institutes of Health.  One of those cancers is brain glioma, and the other is nerve schwannoma.  Brain glioma is usually fatal, and nerve schwannoma can be.  Brain glioma took the life of Beau Biden, who is Vice President Joe Biden's son, and now threatens the life of Senator John McCain.  (You may wish to view a short video by attorney Jimmy Gonzalez on this subject.)
• The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) provides guidelines for the maximum permitted exposure of human beings to radiofrequency radiation.  But those guidelines are so permissive that they do not protect the public.
• There is no prospect at this time that the FCC will tighten those guidelines.  The FCC has failed to do so for twenty years now, and has even ignored the new findings on cancer by the National Institutes of Health.  The FCC is too tightly controlled by the industry it is supposed to regulate.  And the FCC has no significant internal biomedical expertise.
• Proceeding with the installation of small cell towers, up and down the streets of Montgomery County, is PURE FOLLY.  The County Government apparently feels that it cannot fight back on environmental grounds, because of provisions in the 1996 Telecommunications Act.  But finding ways to oppose such installation is vital.
• If small cell towers are installed, they WILL harm the communities forced to accept them.  The implications for the public health and for the exploding costs of health care are deeply troubling.
• As public awareness of the harmful effects of radiofrequency radiation continues to grow, the communities with small cell towers will increasingly be regarded as toxic.  Property values can be expected to fall in response, along with the associated property taxes that support local governments.
• Dislocations in these communities will be inevitable.  Residents who are aware of the cause of their suffering, and who are able to leave, will be forced to do so, even if finding a safe place to go is increasingly difficult.  Residents who are unaware, or are unable to leave, will be forced to continue to suffer.
• Fortunately, safe communications technology is available and can be implemented; but it MUST be done with non-radiating approaches, such as fiber-optic cable or coaxial cable.  (These cable technologies are also called “wired technologies” to distinguish them from “wireless technologies” like cellular communications systems.)
• For residents who already have a coaxial cable or a fiber-optic cable connection to their homes, they already have the best connection to the Internet, and to other communications services, that current technology can offer.  Cable technologies are safe, fast, reliable, and more cyber secure than wireless technologies.
• Wireless technologies, of course, offer mobility which cable technologies cannot.  But the price of mobility is the continued assault on the public health.  Unimpeded mobility for even ONE person requires IRRADIATION of the MANY.
• We are in a difficult period right now, as a society.  The politics of the wireless technologies are trailing the biomedical science showing harm.  While we are working to close that gap, we MUST opt for a healthy, happy, and long life for everyone by doing ALL that is possible to block the installation of small cell towers.

Please see the following documents for supporting information: 

• The Health Argument against Cell Phones and Cell Towers.  This detailed document is heavily referenced.
• Why We Should Oppose 5G on Health Grounds. This short document describes why the emerging Fifth Generation (5G) of cellular technology, which relies on the small cell towers, is of such great concern.

For further information about wireless technologies, including cellular technologies, please see the following two outstanding web sites:

• Environmental Health Trust
• What are 5G and the Internet of Things?

Who am I?

I have been a resident of Montgomery County since 1979.  I hold a Ph.D. in Applied Physics from Harvard University.  I am a retired U.S. Government career scientist.  During my Government career, I worked for the Executive Office of the President, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.  More information about my background can be found in the documents described above.

Excerpt from a letter by Ronald M. Powell, Ph.D.



Note: The Montgomery County Planning Board will review, for approval, several applications from private telecommunications carriers requesting to locate their equipment on existing structures on Montgomery Parks property to improve wireless telecommunications services in the area.

The applications propose to install equipment on already existing radio/cell towers, monopole and respective ground equipment compounds in Blair Local Park, the Sligo Creek Golf Course and Wheaton Regional Park.