The Downside of Electrics and Cell Phones

Ever since a 1979 study reported that children in Denver who had died from cancer were two to three times more likely to have lived within 130 feet of a high-voltage power line, a controversy has brewed over the health effects of electric and magnetic fields (EMFs). In 1998, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) assembled an international panel to evaluate the available EMF health data. This working group concluded that extremely low frequency EMFs, such as those from power lines and appliances below 3,000 hertz, be categorized as possible human carcinogens. They cited studies pointing to higher rates of leukemia in children exposed at home and in workers exposed on the job.

However, working group member Louis Slesin, Ph.D., claimed in Microwave News that the NIEHS downplayed its own panel's findings in its press release by categorizing EMF risk as "probably quite small." And he expressed concern that a draft report on the results of NIEHS's EMF research program makes no mention of the working group's conclusion. But Dr. Gary Boorman, head of the program, says NIEHS's studies "provide little or no support for any potential association."

"The problem is that if NIEHS says there is a possible cancer risk, then they have to sponsor more research, and they just don't want to do that," says Dr. Slesin. One theory is that EMFs have a potential to cause biological effects because they generate weak currents in our bodies. EMFs may depress the brain's secretion of melatonin, which regulates sleep and possibly slows the growth of breast cancer cells. Other studies suggest that EMFs may foster tumor growth by altering hormone levels and enzyme production.

Higher radio (RF) and microwave frequencies, at which wireless communication and broadcast signals operate, pose another set of health questions. Cellular phone frequencies range from 900 million to 2,200 million hertz, and 1998 studies linked cell phone use to elevated blood pressure and headaches. British and Australian studies found higher leukemia rates in residents near RF towers, although other studies did not replicate those findings.

The Cell Tower Wars

Over 69 million people in the U.S. own cellular phones, according to Tim Ayers, a Cellular Telecommunications Industry Association spokesperson. To date, 65,887 antennas have been erected here. While 80% of cell phone antennas rest on preexisting structures such as roofs and steeples, the remainder occupy radio and television towers up to 1,000 feet high.

Concerned about possible health effects and drops in property value, at least 70 community groups have organized across the U.S. to stop erection of cell phone towers and antennas. Their chief opponent is a federal government beholden to the telecommunications industry for millions of dollars in lobbying and campaign contribution expenditures, including $92.6 million in 1997 alone.

Two of these citizen groups and the Communication Workers of America have asked the U.S. Court of Appeals to repeal Section 704 of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which forbids local and state governments to require lower threshold RF exposure levels than the Federal Communications Committee (FCC) allows. And a provision of the Wireless Communications and Public Safety Act of 1999, now under Congressional consideration, grants wireless providers immunity from product liability. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), who introduced this bill, received $160,000 from telecommunications companies for his 1997-98 campaign. "The Telecommunications Act may result in some significant public health problems, and now Congress is trying to allow the industry not to be held accountable for it," says Libby Kelley, a former health policy analyst with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, who testified against both provisions.

Calling All Bird Lovers

Communications towers signal bad news for other species as well. Songbirds migrate at night, navigating by the stars and Earth's magnetic field. When overcast skies limit visibility, birds flock to lights near their flight level, such as those atop communications towers. Collisions with the tower, its surrounding guy wires, or other birds heading for the same lit space often prove fatal. Ornithologist Bill Evans estimates that U.S. towers kill between 3 and 5 million birds every year. The casualties include some of North America's most vibrant and rapidly declining songsters, such as warblers, vireos, thrushes, orioles, and scarlet tanagers.

Demand for wireless phones and digital television will make survival of future migrations even more arduous. "The broadcast and communications industries have been taking a considerable toll on migratory songbirds for the past half century, and now it's time to look to them to minimize the impact of their towers on these birds," Evans says.