New cellphone towers coming to a neighborhood near you
By Simon Spagnoletti 
posted Sep 13th 2004 6:31AM
posted Sep 13th 2004 6:31AM
We're about to get a quite a few more cellphone towers
scattered all over the place. An almost-approved deal between cellular industry members and historic preservation
representatives would remove a bunch of limits on where cellphone towers are built and what hoops have to be
jumped through before they can go up. The cellphone companies are ecstatic of course (they get more towers and can
provide more coverage) but we're sure there are groups out there lamenting the rise of yet more ugly transmitters
(something or other about them being highly dangerous sources of radiation). We certainly wouldn't relish one
plopped down in front of our window. Aren't there enough
trees to hide them in?
The radiation from the cell-phone that you hold up to your ear is much stronger than the radiation from the cell-towers. However, modern cell-phones will turn down their transmission strenght when they are close to a cell-tower and so the radiation you experience will be reduced when the cells get smaller. As an added bonus, smaller cells can handle more traffic.
Does this look like a palm tree to anyone else?
in my neighborhood sprint made a deal with a local church to install a cell tower in their new bell tower that they installed for them. So basically this struggling church gets a free tower, and $. Plus you can't tell there is a tower there. Seems like a win win situation.
Bah! This is old news! We already have fakre redwood and palm tree cell towers all over Southern California. The redwood looks like those big giant plastic christmas trees!
The modification of the Historic Preservation deal certainly changes the process necessary for communication towers but stating that it removes hoops and limits is an overstatement. The changes modify the process for potential cell sites that are do not raise "flags" that signify potential impact to historic preservation areas. It does not change local zoning ability to approve or deny a tower nor does it remove the hoops for getting towers approved in sight of historic districts. The overall impact (intended) will be to speed up towers that are have minimal impact.
The question isn't will there be enough trees to hide them. The question is how long will the trees, birds, animals, earthworms, etc...survive near the cell towers. Cell towers put out the similar frequencies as our delta and alpha brain waves. They can cause disorientation, memory loss, fatigue, some researchers even say cancer! Symptoms blamed on a myriad of other things. This is being proven in places like Australia and New Zealand.