Download There is ample reason for caution when it comes to where

T-Mobile’s Big Lie
The Company that Claims to Love Kids Wants to Give them Cell Phone
Tower Health Risks, Too
By David Steinman
All over television land, mobile cell phone company T-Mobile is running its kids
are free ads. Join the T-Mobile network and your kids get free service. Why? Because
T-Mobile just absolutely adores your kids, or so the new company line goes.
But, in fact, T-Mobile is playing fast and loose with kids’ health when it comes to
“planting” microwave cell phone towers—especially as the company, shall we say, has a
penchant for setting up their eyesores by elementary schools and parks, despite
accumulating evidence that cell phone towers are linked with reproductive effects on the
developing fetus. The big question is this: Is there a T-Mobile cell phone tower coming
to your neighborhood next? Your local park? The answer could very well be yes, since
regulating cell phone towers locally is a whole new frontier with plenty of federal
intervention potentially limiting what local communities can do. Be fearful. Very
fearful.
Evidence is mounting that cell tower exposure has extremely negative health
implications. Yet, despite the known risks of electromagnetic radiation (EMR) and
Electromagnetic fields (EMF) to children and the medically fragile, T-Mobile is trying to
force the city of Huntington Beach, California, to allow them to erect towers over 50 feet
high in two of their park playgrounds, one of which is beside a local elementary school.
These towers send and receive Radio Frequency (RF) waves, which is a form of
EMR/EMF.
Not so kid friendly, after all. Since EMFs have documented health risks, why
would T-Mobile persist in building cell towers next to an elementary school and park
where kids will spend hours in close proximity to cell phone towers emitting? Most
studies on EMFs have been on power lines, and only recently have people begun to
consider the potential risks of Radio Frequency (RF) Wave Radiation and other forms of
EMFs. RF antennae put off much higher energy than power lines; therefore it can be
expected that they pose a much more significant risk. Here is some of the evidence:

The Harbour View tower is 28 feet from the school property, closest to the
preppy-K classrooms and kindergarten classrooms.

Multiple studies demonstrate increased rates of leukemia in children who
live or go to school in close proximity to cell towers.

The 55-foot Harbour View tower would loom over the single-story school
building and small trees that are a few feet from the tower base.

There are two playsets that the Harbour View tower would sit between—
the school playset and the park playset. This tower would become an
obvious structure that children would be drawn to climb on.

There is a child-care facility that operates on Harbour View School
property offering before- and after-school care as well as all-day care for
preschoolers. These children would be subjected to extra hours of daily
exposure in addition to all of their school hours.

The placement of the tower directly adjacent to the sand-box / playsets
within Bolsa View Park means neighborhood children who play regularly
at that park to extra levels of EMF than normal exposure levels.
EMF's have documented health risks for the medically fragile and those with
implanted medical devices. They can cause pacemakers to malfunction and can cause
implanted defibrillators to malfunction. Some insulin pumps can be adversely affected
by EMF's. Other sensitive medical equipment can have interference from EMF's. How
many of Bolsa View and Harbour View neighbors might have such devices or known
EMF sensitivity?
Studies Show Health Risks
There is ample reason for caution when it comes to where microwave cell phone
towers are placed. They have been in use for only about two decades but have begun to
proliferate and raise concerns as well over lowered property values besides health effects.
With the kind of low frequency radiation emitted by these towers, though, simply trying
to see if they cause cancer alone is probably not going to yield a very broad perspective.
By weakening the overall organism, health effects may become preordained. That is
what this 2006 article in Elecromagnetic Biology and Medicine said. Researcher CF
Blackman asked, “Can EMF exposure during development leave an imprint later in
life?”i
People in industrialized nations live in an environment of ubiquitous
electromagnetic field (EMF) exposure, both natural and anthropogenic. The intensity,
variety, and geographic distribution of anthropogenic EMF exposures have grown
dramatically since the mid 20th century, with many uses serving, and in close proximity
to, human populations, such as electric power distribution, radio and television
transmission, and more recently, personal cell phone communication units and
transmitting towers. Thus, it is reasonable to ask if this EMF exposure could cause
alterations in the physiology of developing organisms, since they are generally assumed
to be the most sensitive to chemical stressors. In this report, work published beginning in
the late 1980s was reviewed. Initial reports indicated that exposure of chicken eggs
during embryonic development to power-line electric fields of 50 and 60 Hz, at 10 V/m
in air (which is frequently in locations inhabited by humans), “could cause the brain
tissues of the hatched chickens to respond differently in a particular test. More recently,
an anecdotal report of human sensitivity to EMF has appeared that shows a health-related
influence of prior exposure history to particular power-line frequencies in chemically
sensitized individuals. These reports open the question of whether the ambient
electromagnetic environment can leave an imprint on developing organisms and if such
imprint changes have the potential for health consequences.”
In 1988 in Bioelectromagnetics. The Health Effects Research Laboratory, U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, took
fertilized eggs of Gallus domesticus that were exposed continuously during their 21-day
incubation period to either 50- or 60-Hz sinusoidal electric fields at an average intensity
of 10 Vrms/m.ii “These results demonstrate that exposure of a developing organism to
ambient power-line-frequency electric fields at levels typically found inside buildings can
alter the response of brain tissue to field-induced calcium-ion efflux. The physiological
significance of this finding has yet to be established.”
In a landmark study published in Pediatrics, researchers note, “Consistent
epidemiologic evidence of an association between childhood leukemia and exposure to
extremely low frequency (ELF) magnetic fields has led to their classification by the
International Agency for Research on Cancer as a ‘possible human carcinogen.’ Concerns
about the potential vulnerability of children to radio frequency (RF) fields have been
raised because of the potentially greater susceptibility of their developing nervous
systems; in addition, their brain tissue is more conductive, RF penetration is greater
relative to head size, and they will have a longer lifetime of exposure than adults.”iii
Fighting Back, Locally
The citizens of towns across America, like Huntington Beach, are calling for
responsible, intelligent placement of cell towers. T-Mobile is attempting to force the City
of Huntington Beach to put their cell towers in potentially some of the most dangerous
areas. The company is not response, either. We put a call into T-Mobile and were told
we could write a letter to their Albuquerque, New Mexico address.
So local citizens have put Measure Q on the November ballot and they are asking
for a “no” vote that lets both the city and T-Mobile know the people, as a city, do not
wish to have cell towers placed near any schools, parks or playground.
“We are asking our city to follow a precautionary principle and believe these
towers should not be near to school play areas. Since we really do not know the
immediate or future effects this constant radiation will have on our kids, let’s use
caution,” notes a spokesperson for the no on Measure Q campaign.
This precautionary principle may be catching on nationwide, as more hundreds of
thousands more microwave cell phone towers are planned. Who knows? There could be
one coming to your child’s school next.
Steinman is a former representative of the public interest at the National Academy
of Sciences and has published Diet for a Poisoned Planet and The Safe Shopper’s Bible.
Resources
www.noonmeasureq.com
References
i
Blackman CF. “Can EMF exposure during development leave an imprint later in life?” Electromagn
Biol Med. 2006;25(4):217-25.
ii
Blackman CF, House DE, Benane SG, Joines WT, Spiegel RJ. Effect of ambient levels of power-linefrequency electric fields on a developing vertebrate. Bioelectromagnetics. 1988;9(2):129-40.
iii
Leeka Kheifets, PhD, Michael Repacholi, PhD , Rick Saunders, PhD, Emilie van Deventer, PhD
The Sensitivity of Children to Electromagnetic Fields. PEDIATRICS Vol. 116 No. 2 August
2005, pp. e303-e313 (doi:10.1542/peds.2004-2541)