Subject: Harvard Researchers Say Cell Towers Are A Hazard
Date: Wed, 18 Jun 1997 113046 -0500 (CDT)
From: Emrall@aol.com
To: Multiple recipients of list <emf-l@mail.llion.org>
--------------------------------------------------
June 18, 1997
As many of you know, there are now over 300 moratoriums in place in the U.S.
in connection with permitting and construction of wireless communication
facilities (i.e. cell towers).
The following news article from the Boston Globe alerts us that even Harvard
University has become pro-active in opposing cell tower siting.
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New Cell Network Called A Hazard
Sprint PCS system hit by researchers
By Peter J. Howe, Globe Staff, 06/16/97
More than 40 researchers and faculty members at
Harvard's
School of Public Health have signed a petition urging state officials to
block Sprint from turning on a new enhanced cellular phone network that
opponents say poses a health threat.
In the latest flareup in the debate over the health
risks
of cell phones, Concord environmental activist Susan Clarke
has persuaded the Harvard-affiliated scientists to join her fight against
the
new Personal Communications Service network that is to be turned on by
year's
end.
The petition, which Clarke plans to present to the state
Public Health
Department, cites ``the biological plausibility of negative health
impacts''
from the system's pulsed digital waves and calls for ``a full review and
determination of its safety by the scientific community.''
Sprint officials and one of their health consultants
from
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology insisted that their system is
entirely safe.
In recent years, a small number of studies have
suggested
that cell-phone-type microwave radiation could cause brain cancer,
eye damage, asthma, and lymphoma in mice.
But numerous other studies have denied any health risk,
except for possible disruption of heart pacemakers by phones held too close
to the chest. Extensive reviews by the Federal Communications
Commission, Institute of Electrical and Electronic
Engineers, and the National Council for Radiation protection
have concluded that cell phones and PCS units are safe and that
current regulations on their power levels and emissions
are
adequate to protect people.
``There have been literally thousands of studies to
evaluate the whole range of radio frequency, and there are no health effects
that can be substantiated
to argue that radio frequency [emissions] should be controlled to any
greater degree than they are today,'' said William Irwin,
an MIT health physicist and consultant to Sprint.
PCS devices are essentially souped-up cellular phones
that use streams of digital information to transmit sound and information
much more clearly and with greater privacy than standard cell phones. They
operate at 1,900 megahertz, well above the normal 800
megahertz frequency of cell phones.
Sprint and a unit of AT&T won the two franchises to
build
Greater Boston PCS systems that will extend to Providence, Worcester, and
parts of New
Hampshire and Maine and compete with Cellular One and Bell Atlantic
Nynex Mobile cell phone systems. PCS licenses have been
bought across the nation, and service has already been
launched in New York, Washington, and other cities.
Dekkers Davidson, area vice president for Sprint PCS,
said service will start in Greater Boston by the end of this year. Around
New
England, it is erecting about 300 antennas, of which 70
percent - including all those in the city of Boston - will
be on rooftops or existing structures. About 100 will
require new towers.
One of the Harvard petition signers, Dr. Constantin
Yiannoutsos, said, ``I'm not considering myself an expert'' on the question
of cell phones' health risks,
but Clarke ``showed me evidence of literature that implied they might be
harmful to people. I'm trying to help in some kind of
dialogue.''
Another signer, Dr. Joel Schwartz, said, ``There's a lot
of studies that
suggest there's an increased cancer risk'' from exposure to microwaves.
But Davidson said, ``We're talking about a very
low-power
device'' that
uses only 0.6 watts of power, a tiny fraction of what a television,
microwave oven, or hair dryer uses. ``We wouldn't be in
business if we thought there were health issues.''
DPH officials could not be reached Friday for comment.
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This story ran on page B03 of the Boston Globe on
06/16/97. © Copyright 1997 Globe Newspaper Company.
Archive provided courtesy of WaveGuide, http://www.wave-guide.org
Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.feb.se/EMF-L/EMF-L.html