Home cell tower shielding campaign smacked down

The jury is still (and ever will be) out on the issue of whether cellphone radiation is hazardous to your health, but we don't think most people take too well to scare tactics like those employed by home cellphone-mast shielding "company" Better Safe Homes. Now, granted, generally speaking very close proximity to cellphone tower arguably increases the absorption of radiation emissions more so than the use of individual devices, but it's a little alarmist to your claim property value can drop by up to 50% and to make such a claim that you and your children might suffer "Cancer, Leukaemia, Alzheimer's, Pre-senile Dementia (some experts predict some children living or going to School near masts may not make their 30's before becoming senile)." Guess that's why the UK's advertising standards body is putting the kibosh on their flier campaign right quick.

[Via textually]

[Stu Engelke @ Dec 19th 2005 1:05AM]

Actually the most radiation to a person comes from the phone next to their ear, not the tower. In fact the closer to the tower you are the LESS power your phone puts out making you less at risk.

[KC @ Dec 19th 2005 1:05AM]

That type of fear mongering in advertizing should be illegal!

Alot of us are near cell phone tower emmissions every day of our lives... there are repeaters in malls, subway stations, airports, office buildings, underground parking lots, which are all sending out the same EM radiation at a much closer proximity then the tower down the street....

And if this is true god help me.... I live on the top floor of a 12 story apartment building that has TWO cell phone towere from two different carriers (1 CDMA and 1 GSM)!....

I have no trouble sleeping at all, I don't feel sick, and best of all my phone works in the elevator all the way down to the basement in my building! Life is good :)

[mark @ Dec 19th 2005 1:05AM]

what's that growing on the side of your head KC?

[TC @ Dec 19th 2005 1:05AM]

It CAN make your house price drop loads - even if masts are completely safe, house prices are dictated by consumer demand, so if people are worried that blue paint is hazardous to your health you don't paint your house blue. The same reason some people don't want cellphone masts outside their homes; it's not what they are scared of, it's what they think the buyer is scared of.

[ryoshi22 @ Dec 19th 2005 1:05AM]

Regarding house cost, there's also the fact that cell masts completely destroy most residential neighborhoods in terms of skyline. I work by a small village that has a cell mast, and it just looks completely out of place towering (pun) 40' over the houses next to it.