Subject:  Hiding the Blue World (Kelley).....
Date:     Mon, 30 Aug 1999 085716 -0500 (CDT)
From:     "Roy L. Beavers" 
To:       emfguru 
--------------------------------------------------

........The only way that we are going to be able to keep track of the
Blue World, which is extending itself around us, ... is by measuring it
with broad-band frequency detectors....   Industry is learning to
camouflage their antenna locations....  (See the news item below.)

This becomes more important from a public policy standpoint when it is
realized that ONE CELL-PHONE antenna, by itself, even close to living
humans, may not pose a significant risk!.....   But of course ... that
is not the risk we should be measuring!!  We must measure the ACCUMULATED
risk of MANY antennas -- often mounted on the same tower (and perhaps
including the ELF powerline exposure) -- all of which, together, pose the
actual EMF exposure in any given neighborhood environment....

That is the point that is often missed in public hearings on the subject
(e.g., the Rock Creek Park situation or Lookout Mountain) where the
community 'regulators' and the vested interest industry lawyers and
lobbyists talk only about the consequences of one (or a few) additional
antennas....

We must learn to focus all of these discussions on the TOTAL Blue World
effect!!!  That is most likely where the harm is being done.....  (AND,
that of course is where much more study should be taking place!!!)

(Notice in the article below the reference to the placement
of antennas every "two city blocks in Manhattan"......)

Cheerio.......Thanks Libby.....

Roy Beavers (EMFguru)......
rbeavers@llion.org.......
.....It is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness.....
EMF-L web-site can be found at: 
EMF-L archives can be found at: 
..................PEOPLE ARE MORE IMPORTANT THAN PROFITS..................

.........DO YOU KNOW OF OTHERS WHO SHOULD BE ON THIS LIST??????...........

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Sun, 29 Aug 1999 08:39:23 -0700
From: Libby Kelley 
To: rbeavers@llion.org
Subject: Reuters arcticle - 8/26/99 - Tower siting issues

Thursday August 26 11:44 AM ET

'Stealth' Towers Keep Cell Phone Users In Touch

By Andrew Stern

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Church steeples built to bring congregants closer to
God are now are being used
to keep callers in touch with each other.

Telecommunications companies, seeking to satisfy exploding growth in U.S.
cellular telephone use without defacing the
landscape, have been hiding unsightly cellular antennae inside church
steeples, farm silos, sports stadium light stanchions,
flagpoles and water towers.

If a steeple, silo or flagpole does not exist where they need one, the
companies offer to build one.

They are not trying to be cute. The spiky cellular spires that relay mobile
telephone calls have caused consternation in
communities where property values are considered sacred.

``I've been yelled at by angry mobs and I've joined hands with church
congregations praying for divine guidance'' while seeking
consensus on new cellular sites, AT&T Wireless spokesman Chris Doherty said
only half-jokingly.

The need for more sites is growing as firms try to get rid of ``dead
zones'' where cell phone service disappears for the more
than 77 million U.S. wireless telephone subscribers. But only a small
percentage of the 66,000 sites can be truly classified as
``stealthy,'' a spokesman for the Cellular Telecommunications Industry
Association said.

Many are coupled with broadcast towers on buildings, tucked into industrial
parks or found clinging to electrical pylons. But
one antenna masquerades as a tree at George Washington's home in Mt.
Vernon. Others are disguised as a flagpole at a
Baltimore K-Mart and a stadium light stanchion at an Indiana school, and
yet another is hidden in a Dallas billboard.

Spaced as closely as every two city blocks in Manhattan or as far apart as
5 miles (8 km) in the countryside, each digital
cellular site consists of a collection of ground signal devices linked by
heavy cables to an array of up to nine six-foot
(2-meter)-long plastic panels in the sky -- all valued at between $150,000
to $300,000, not including the leased space.

RENT COMES IN HANDY, TOWER IS TROUBLE-FREE

Rents ranging from $500 to $2,000 a month are paid to property owners and
AT&T's Doherty said his company prefers to use
the leases to fill the coffers of churches and other worthwhile beneficiaries.

``We can use it, sure,'' said Robert Modlin, property manager at the
125-year-old Walker Chapel in Arlington, Virginia, which
is in the middle of a five-year contract paying $1,000 per month for a
cellular antenna array inside its steeple.

``They have never been a problem,'' Modlin said of the cellular site's
maintenance crew. ``One condition was they would not
interfere with services or weddings or whatever and they never have.''
Wooden louvers in the chapel's steeple had to be
replaced with fiberglass replicas to provide a clear signal.

In some cases older church steeples, picked because they were the tallest
structures in the neighborhood, could not support the
antenna's heavy cables. In another case a church declined AT&T's offer to
build a steeple, saying it would ruin the building's
architectural symmetry.

But the effort is worth it because undisguised towers have triggered
several lawsuits and a fair amount of resentment.

A tower over a busy intersection adjacent to the Chicago suburb of Niles
has long angered Mayor Nick Blase as a potential
traffic hazard. ``We're not anti-tower, we know it's the coming thing. We
just want you to put them where we want you to put
them,'' he said.

Blase said a wayward vehicle could topple the tower onto unsuspecting
passers-by. Others worry that nearby towers could
lower the value of their homes or that microwave signals might be unhealthy.

The industry moves quickly to quell what it insists are unsubstantiated
claims that the signals cause cancer. Thousands of studies
support the industry's stance that electromagnetic fields do not pose a
health threat -- especially the low-power signals from
cellular towers.

Federal regulations do not allow communities to ban cellular towers except
in rare cases, so the industry hardly ever loses such
battles, but it would rather avoid them.

BATTLE BREWING OVER BIRD KILLS

But another battle may emerge over the flashing warning lights atop some
towers that may endanger migrating birds.

Somewhere between 2 million and 40 million migratory songbirds die each
year when they are confused by broadcast tower
lights, scientists say. The birds swirl around the towers, colliding with
guy wires, each other, or the ground.

During a snowstorm in Kansas in January, 1998, as many as 10,000 Lapland
longspurs died when they flew madly around a
broadcast tower and collided with guy wires and the ground.

Some scientists believe the signals scramble the birds' navigational
senses. Whatever the cause, 350 species including warblers,
vireos and thrushes are vulnerable on foggy nights when the warning lights
reflect off a low cloud ceiling.

At a recent symposium on the subject at Cornell University, scientists said
the deaths might be lessened if towers were kept
under 200 feet (60 meters), guy wires were removed, and red flashing
warning lights were either removed or replaced with
white strobes with longer gaps between flashes.

And Al Manville of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said it was
encouraging ``co-location of the towers'' with other structures
``as one of the first lines of defense.''
Libby Kelley
Executive Director
Ad Hoc Associaiton of Parties concerned About the FCC's Radiofrequency
Radiation Health and Safety Rules
aka Council on Wireless Technology Impacts


Archive provided courtesy of WaveGuide, http://www.wave-guide.org
Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.emfguru.com