Hidden Health Effects of the Wireless Revolution: Dr. Neil Cherry to Speak in San Francis

On Friday, March 22, Bay Area residents will have a rare opportunity to listen to Dr. Neil Cherry, an internationally-known New Zealand biophysicist who will discuss the state of the science on the health effects of electromagnetic radiation. Dr. Cherry will present information linking broadcast towers to cancer incidence in San Francisco neighborhoods, as well as cell phone antennas to neurological and genetic damage. He will also consider the health implications of personal cellular phone use.

Dr. Cherry’s appearance coincides with a rising awareness among San Francisco residents of the potential hidden costs of the so-called “wireless revolution.” As cellular phone companies continue to seek to place wireless antennas on or near homes, schools and health care centers throughout the City, community members from Chinatown, the Excelsior, Bayview/Hunters Point, Pacific Heights, the Mission, the Sunset, the Richmond and other San Francisco neighborhoods are increasingly concerned about the effects these antennas may be having on their health and the environment. These City residents, like their counterparts across the United States and throughout the world, are also confronted by a systematic violation of their democratic rights to local control over decision-making that has been ushered in along with the latest in wireless technology.


It’s the Radiation, Stupid

Cell phones and other wireless devices rely on microwave radiation to transmit their signals. These signals in turn depend upon antenna facilities to relay calls, data, and other information from one location to another. The problem, as more and more people are beginning to realize, is the nature of microwave radiation. According to the November 25, 2000 issue of the prestigious British medical journal The Lancet, there is a growing body of scientific research documenting potential adverse health effects of microwaves on people, animals and the environment. The problem arises both from the electromagnetic fields produced by antennas and cell phones, as well as the specific microwave frequencies used by these devices. Just as a light flickering at a certain frequency can trigger epileptic seizures in certain individuals, there is evidence emerging that the frequencies used by a typical digital cell phone and its antennas mimic or interfere with human physiology in various subtle yet potentially damaging ways. Studies have linked exposure to microwave radiation to conditions ranging from sleep disorders, memory loss and suppression of immune response to leukemia and other forms of cancer. These studies also suggest that those with developing or weakened immune systems, such as children, the elderly and the ill, are particularly at risk. As this scientific evidence continues to mount, people from countries as far afield as Denmark, Israel and South Africa have been organizing to oppose the placement of antennas near their homes, schools, hospitals, farms, and wherever those potentially most vulnerable live, work or play.

Here in San Francisco, the San Francisco Neighborhood Antenna-Free Union (SNAFU) was formed in the Summer of 2000 as a city-wide coalition of individuals, neighborhood organizations, and veterans of neighborhood struggles against antennas to confront the telecom industry and the City Planning Commission over the placement of wireless antennas in their residential communities. Until this time, many of these disputes had occurred in relative isolation, with individual neighborhoods largely unaware of similar struggles taking place throughout the City. SNAFU arose out of the necessity of enacting effective legislation at the city-wide level that would take into consideration the legitimate concerns of residents and strengthen the City's existing guidelines for antenna placement.


Telecom Act of 1996: Corporate Control in Action

The main obstacle in San Francisco, and indeed throughout the United States, has been the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996, which preempts local governments from denying permits for antennas based upon health and safety concerns about radiofrequency radiation as long as antennas meet Federal Communications Commission (F.C.C.) emission standards. The standards set by the F.C.C., an institution in no position to claim a long and distinguished history of expertise in public heath matters, are among the least protective in the world. Switzerland, for example, has standards that are over 100 times more stringent.

Faced with this legal preemption, in August 1996 San Francisco adopted Wireless Telecommunications Services (WTS) Facilities Siting Guidelines to regulate the placement of antennas throughout the City. Since these Guidelines have been implemented, the City Planning Commission, acceding to pressure from lobbyists for the telecommunications industry, has used the federal preemption of health and safety issues as carte blanche and refused to deny a single application for an antenna facility. According to a partial inventory compiled by the City Planning Department in response to community pressure, the result is that over 2,400 wireless antennas are now operating in the City and County of San Francisco.

In the wake of the federal Telecommunications Act, the City of San Francisco has ignored what now amounts to almost 5 years of federal appeals case law interpreting this Act in ways that give local governments more, not less, control over siting decisions. Perhaps even more importantly, the City has not taken into consideration the cumulative effects of the radiation from antennas that have been erected in the wireless gold rush atmosphere that has ensued. Many residents are concerned about the possibility that the present cumulative impact of all antennas in San Francisco may exceed federal guidelines. Their concern is not without precedent; at Lookout Mountain, Colorado, where measurements of cumulative radiation levels from wireless antennas located in that community were taken, the results showed emissions that exceeded F.C.C. limits.


SNAFU Goes to City Hall

In January of 2001, members of SNAFU were invited to speak on this issue before Mayor Willie Brown and members of various City departments and commissions that have jurisdiction over wireless antennas. At this meeting, SNAFU asked the Mayor to declare an immediate one-year moratorium on all new antennas until the City achieved three primary goals: (1) Conducted a complete inventory of existing antenna facilities in San Francisco, including antennas under the jurisdiction of the Planning Department, Department of Public Works, Redevelopment Agency, Caltrans, Port Authority, Presidio Trust, and U.S. Military; (2) made an independent scientific determination whether each antenna facility and site is in compliance with existing FCC radiation emission standards; and (3) fully considered SNAFU's proposed revisions to antenna-siting guidelines in public hearings before the appropriate regulatory agencies and adopted these revisions to the fullest appropriate extent. SNAFU's proposed guidelines include keeping antennas away from schools, hospitals, senior centers, residences, and other areas where people potentially most vulnerable to microwave radiation gather and reside. At this meeting, the Mayor instructed the Director of the Planning Department, Gerald Green, to immediately begin compiling an inventory, but demurred from calling for a moratorium and instead directed SNAFU to approach the then-newly elected Board of Supervisor for such legislation.

After several months of intensive lobbying efforts, and after several Board-sponsored meetings were conducted involving members of SNAFU and representatives of the wireless industry, on July 9, 2001 Board of Supervisors President Tom Ammiano introduced legislation calling for a six-month moratorium on new cell phone and other wireless antennas in residential neighborhoods throughout the City of San Francisco. On December 13, 2001, the Board's Housing, Transportation and Land Use Committee continued a vote on a moratorium pending the Board's consideration of proposed interim changes to the City's antenna-siting guidelines. As of this writing, a hearing date to consider this legislation in its final form has yet to be set.


Business As Usual

In the absence of a moratorium to provide some relief for neighborhoods facing unwanted wireless antennas, City residents by necessity continue to battle proposed antennas on a case-by-case basis. Those who have the wherewithal to do so have met with significant success in the past year, in some cases pressuring wireless companies to withdraw from proposed antenna sites by conducting high-profile public demonstrations, in others by appealing Planning Commission approvals to the full Board of Supervisors. In my own predominantly residential neighborhood, for example, on January 14 the Board of Supervisors voted down 10-1 a proposal by Sprint PCS to place three cellular phone one-half block from an elementary school, bringing to a close an 18-month struggle by neighbors to prevent their installation.

With so many antennas now in operation in the City, residents of my neighborhood were able to argue convincingly before the Boar that the additional antennas proposed were not necessary for Sprint's network because the company already provides service to Sprint customers in the area. Why Sprint claimed it needed these antennas is uncertain. What is certain is that we were not able to argue that the antennas pose a potential health threat. If we had, the City might have been sued by Sprint.

The number of San Franciscans concerned about this issue is telling: 2,800 Richmond District residents who signed a petition against an antenna site on Geary Blvd.; 800 residents who resisted antennas in Chinatown; 1,000 neighbors who protested a wireless facility in Noe Valley; 7,000 postal workers and supporters who opposed antennas proposed for post offices; and the list goes on. Also telling is the wireless industry's response: a relentless attempt to wear down community resistance. MetroPCS, a new company trying to enter the local market, withdrew from a proposed antenna site at Geary & 11th Ave. after media coverage of neighborhood opposition only to propose not one but three additional sites along Geary Blvd.

In Congress, Senators Leahy and Jeffords of Vermont have prepared legislation that would overturn the health and safety preemption under the Telecommunications Act and fund U.S.-based research into the potential health effects of radiofrequency radiation. The Senators, along with Representatives Sanders of Vermont and Tancredo of Colorado, were poised to introduce this legislation last September, but as of today, it remains another casualty of the events of 9/11.

It will take continued, massive, grass-roots organizing and mobilization to get this bill introduced and passed by the U.S. Congress and to ensure that the concerns of San Francisco residents and others around the country become a legitimate part of the equation balancing the convenience of wireless technologies with the health and safety of ourselves and the environment. In the meantime, all interested readers are invited to attend Dr. Cherry’s presentation on Friday, March 22 from 12:00 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. at the California State Building, 455 Golden Gate Avenue, Basement Conference Center, Training Room Three. Those wishing to contact SNAFU directly can do so by sending an e-mail to loranger [at] ldbb.com.