Monday, September 17, 2012

Protesters say cell towers harmful


Grand Bend area residents fear radiation that Health Canada says is safe within limits

Protesters say cell towers harmful

By Debora Van Brenk, The London Free Press

A cellphone tower protester demonstrates outside the office of Bev Shipley, MP for Lambton-Kent-Middlesex. (DEREK RUTTAN, The London Free Press)
A cellphone tower protester demonstrates outside the office of Bev Shipley, MP for 
Lambton-Kent-Middlesex. (DEREK RUTTAN, The London Free Press)

It’s become a common refrain among critics in Southwestern Ontario: stretching higher than city skyscrapers, the towers are blights on the landscape and health hazards to nearby residents.

Only, this time, the targets aren’t giant wind turbines but cellphone towers.
On Monday, a group of Grand Bend-area residents appealed to Lambton-Kent-Middlesex MP Bev Shipley for a moratorium on cell towers — two of which are 
set to be built in that area.

Opponents of wind turbines want them stopped until Health Canada finishes a 
health study next year. There’s no similar study on cell towers; Health Canada 
calls them safe.

Skeptics include Melissa Chambers, who lives near Port Franks, and others who 
have signed a petition calling for a tower-free “sanctuary.”

“I have become electro-sensitive,” said Chambers, a commercial airline pilot 
who flew around the world until her illness became debilitating in March.

Now her world is limited mostly to cell-free areas around her home — a result, 
she says, of an extreme reaction to cellphone radiation.

Chalmers fled London for Port Franks after a specialist in Toronto diagnosed her vertigo, nausea, tinnitus and memory loss as an over-­sensitivity to those waves.
She says she can feel it through her skin when she is around cellphones, cell 
towers, WiFi hotspots and cordless phones.

“It feels like a rippling, prickling sensation.”

Low-level radio-frequency fields emitted by cellphones and cell towers are similar 
to those emitted by AM/FM radios and televisions, Health Canada says.

Shipley said Industry Canada and Health Canada regulations govern the safety of phone towers and, unless compelling evidence comes forward, he’s content with 
the rules as they stand.

But even the demonstration couldn’t change the use of cellphones.
Protester Arthur Lake of Southcott Pines said cellphone radiation contributed to 
his wife’s death from a brain tumour. Nonetheless, he continues to use one and 
carry it on his hip.

Residents are critical of the process that has enabled Bell Canada to build a bigger cell tower near a playground and homes in the Southcott Pines subdivision of 
Grand Bend. Another tower is planned for Port Franks.

The group gave Shipley a sheaf of papers with studies they say prove the harm cell towers can pose. They have also carpeted the community with flyers and a petition.
Laureen Maurizio, an organizer of the protest, said, “We want to choose what we 
live around.”

Canadians in 2010 were packing 24 million cellphones and there’s no sign of 
stopping.Chalmers admitted that halting all tower construction could result in 
“a lot of pushback . . . There are a lot of people that don’t want to believe it 
because they want their devices.”

A spokesperson for Bell Canada couldn’t be reached for comment. In the past, 
the company has said its towers are safe and meet Industry Canada standards.
deb.vanbrenk@sunmedia.ca

--with files from Derek Ruttan,The London Free Press
--- --- ---
WHAT HEALTH CANADA SAYS ABOUT TOWERS
Cellphones may interfere with medical devices such as cardiac pacemakers, defibrillators and hearing aids. With respect to cellphone towers, as long as 
exposures respect the limits set in Health Canada’s guidelines, there is no 
scientific reason to consider cellphone towers to be dangerous to the public. . . Precautions to limit exposure to RF (radio-frequency) energy from cellphone 
towers are unnecessary because exposure levels are typically well below those specified in health-based exposure standards.

Poll 

Do you think cell towers are harmful?

53% 389 votes
Yes

34% 245 votes
No

13% 94 votes
I don't really know


http://www.lfpress.com/2012/09/10/protesters-says-cell-towers-harmful



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