The Price of Progress: Is High Speed Cellular Worth it?
Many years ago, I was working on an advanced government project using NeXT computers. CEO Steve Jobs was personally involved because, well, we were inventing the future. During one of our discussions, the subject of placing technology into the hands of ordinary people became the topic. We both agreed that information technology, such as personal computers and the Internet, was a valuable productivity enhancement tool for the masses, but not a lifestyle.
Since then, the line between the two has not only blurred but, in the minds of younger generations, vanished completely. It is commonplace for people to visit exotic worldwide “bucket list” places or perform dangerous activities with the selfie stick in hand simply to gain a few “likes” on their social media accounts. One cannot drive from Danville to Walnut Creek on I-680 without seeing numerous drivers distracted by their mobile devices unaware of the traffic situation around them. And any San Ramon Valley restaurant, on any given day, includes parents glued to their cell phones while their children are being assimilated into their tablets by playing games.
This is not utilizing the cell phone as a productivity tool – this is lifestyle problem. Too many people are living in the virtual world of Instagram and Facebook and not participating in the real world, socializing face-to-face with others or working together to solve a problem or build a team.
Additionally, the health hazards to children under the age of 18 and addicted to cell phones or tablets are coming into focus as the “mobile device” generation ages. Many studies have been done and many warnings rendered, but without much affect yet.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the largest US medical association of pediatricians and pediatric specialists, recommends that the US government tighten wireless exposure limits and that the public reduce children’s exposure to cell phones and other devices that emit wireless radiation. How many of us have taken heed of this warning? A quick glance around a crowded restaurant provides the answer – not many.
And, unfortunately, this Electro Magnetic Radiation (EMR) exposure issue is about to become much worse if the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has its way.
The Cellular Telephone Industry Association (CTIA) and the FCC have joined forces to aggressively deploy a new nationwide high-speed wireless network system. It’s commonly known as 5G or the fifth generation of cellular networking and billed as the next step in the evolution of wireless mobile communications. Except it’s not… it’s a giant leap into the non-mobile environment such as industrial areas, business office parks, urban areas and even your neighborhood!
CTIA and wireless telephony companies, such as ATT, Sprint, Verizon and T-Mobile are working rapidly to bypass the fiber optics and cable technologies we currently use to connect our homes to the internet. Rather than just having faster smartphones, however, the 5G speeds (4 times faster than today’s 4G cellular systems) may eventually let people download entire movies within seconds and enable other applications including industrial robots, security cameras, drones and cars that send traffic data to one another. What the wireless industry touts as a totally interconnected future with broad coverage, high speeds and low latency.
Sounds great. But, as with anything, the devil is in the details.
In fact, to achieve these higher speeds, the 4G and 5G microwave antennas must be placed in very close proximity to the source – and by that, I mean next to your home. With the collusion of the FCC, Verizon and other carriers plan to scatter these antennas across all our East Bay towns and communities, with large numbers being planted in our neighborhoods. To achieve this goal quickly, before homeowners, health advocates and parents understand what is happening to them, the FCC has overridden the power invested in local authorities to maintain proper community environmental ordinances, such as our Town Councils and even Home Owners Associations.
The FCC has usurped local authority to enable wireless carriers to mount these RF radiation emitting antennas on existing town-owned right-of-way structures currently used for street lights in neighborhoods, utility poles in downtown areas, and traffic light poles on streets. The carriers benignly refer to these antennas as “small cells” – but are they more accurately described as “close proximity microwave radiation antennas” or “radiation beacons.” They will be emitting RF radiation energy 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, basically microwave-blasting our homes from close proximity. Think of a giant WiFi router sitting on the street light in front of your house.
But, the FCC has also decreed that public health cannot be considered in the antenna permit approval and location process! If a telephone company thinks your front yard is the perfect place for one of their “radiation beacons,” the odds are it’s going to be approved. In neighborhoods where this network has already begun to roll out, homes located near one of the so called “small cell” sites have suffered up to 20% loss in value.
Worse, those initial close proximity antennas that currently use 4G RF technology will be upgraded to 5G in a year or two, using an even more harmful type of radiation called millimeter wave (mmW). It is such a new technology that few scientific studies have been done in regards to long term effects on humans. However, the US military studied this part of the frequency spectrum and created a weapon out of it called SS-ADT to inflict pain on the enemy.
In 2011, an evaluation group of 30 experts at the International Agency for Research on Cancer (World Health Organization) classified all radiofrequency emissions – including parts of 5G – as potential carcinogens. In the group’s findings are warnings such as “the 5G millimeter-waves were never tested for human health hazard and there are only a very limited number of studies on biological effects. In practice, we do not know what the health effects of long-term and close proximity exposures might be.”
The medical and health industries are extremely concerned about the cumulative effects of long term exposure to this level of radiation, especially with children being the most vulnerable. The recent cancer cluster of children in Ripon, CA revolves around a cell tower that was placed on the Weston Elementary School grounds a few years ago. Our children should not have to fight cancer while they are attending elementary school.
Once deployed, it will not be possible to avoid 5G mmW radiation exposure … our environment will be saturated with low-power millimeter-waves in order for 5G to perform correctly. As a real world example of this, one only need look at Orinda. Several community activists in this bucolic village recently engaged in a battle with Verizon over their desire to blanket the community with these benignly labelled 5G “small cells.” The Verizon plan calls for placing 87 antennas across the town. Not only will there be aesthetic blight, making Orinda look like an industrial park, but all the citizens will be exposed to a new kind of pollution referred to as “electrosmog” every day of their life.
Can it get worse? Yes. Also due to the FCC mandating “equal access to markets” for all wireless carriers, there are three more companies waiting to put up “small cells” and towers after Verizon gets its nose under the camel’s tent. So Orinda citizens could easily see 325 of these radiation beacons lining the town streets and neighborhood roads in a few years. If you ever wondered what it was like to crawl inside your microwave oven, just sit on a park bench in downtown Orinda in May of 2021.
What can we do to protect the health of our children and the aesthetic appeal of our neighborhoods? Right now, there are Bay Area advocacy groups like Scientists for Wired Technology and EMF Safety Network that are great sources of information. Within our communities are local groups such as Danville Citizens for Responsible Growth (DCRG) that attend town hall meetings, petition for denial of “small cell” permits and keep track of local developments.
But these groups can only hope to slow down this tide of radiation blight. It is vitally important that all concerned citizens contact our Federal elected officials—Senators and Congressional Representatives—and demand that control over deployment of these potentially harmful radiation beacons be taken away from the FCC and delegated back to the local communities. No one knows how to maintain our small town atmosphere better that the residents who choose to live there.
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