Cell Tower Radiation Causing Personal Injury

Read the blog from Frank Penney Injury Lawyers in Roseville, CA below. 

Nearly every teenager alive today has always known the cell phone. There are now more mobile devices in the world than there are people: 8.1 billion gadgets vs 7.5 billion people. And counting. Today, more people own mobile phones than have access to running water or electricity, and to those that have them, their phones have become their single most important possession.

The US Census Bureau recorded that in the last half of 2016, the percentage of households with only mobile phone service crested 50% for the first time.

Are Cell Towers Dangerous?

Telecom industry giant, Ericsson, has noted that by 2020, 90% of the global population will be in range to at least one cell site, and 70% of those people will be using a smartphone. But is it safe?

MICROWAVE RADIATION

The radio signal that makes it all work is technically microwave radiation — which sounds bad, sounds like too much of that and we’ll have another Godzilla on our hands.

But as this chart illustrates, the radio waves streaming to and from our cell phones are in the UHF (ultra-high frequency) range that includes TV and FM broadcasts, which has been widely transmitted over the planet for over fifty years with no known ill effects, so drawing a clear line from this microwave radiation to personal injury is difficult.

Spiderman is only possible somewhere to the far right of the chart in the radioactive gamma-ray region, which is beyond X-ray.

Roseville Opposes Cell Site Spread

Roseville, Rocklin, and other California cities oppose Bill 649, which would require cities to allow small cell phone towers on public land. The cities say that it strips local governments of the power to control construction in their areas — including on local properties such as city parks, even though the first line of the bill “Reaffirms local governments’ historic role and authority with respect to communications infrastructure siting and construction generally.”

While the essence of Senate Bill 649 appears to be an effort to unify regulatory systems statewide — rather than relying on thousands of idiosyncratic city and county planning commission rules — the physical part of the bill covers issues related to public property antenna placement, including stadiums, parks, campuses, hospitals, transit stations, and public buildings.

The bill would also grant cell service providers such as AT&T and Verizon “fair, reasonable, nondiscriminatory, and nonexclusive access” to locally-owned utility and street light poles.

AT&T predicted in 2016 that “small cells will make up the substantial majority of their future cell tower and cell site development over the next 5 years.” Any base station, or cell site, can generally be described as an antenna and a loose handful of electrical components that phones radio to and from, communicating to the world.

And newer, smaller technology has produced a mini-station capability such as one built by Extenet, designed to be mounted on light poles, that work particularly well for crowded downtown areas with tall buildings. There is a current installation underway of 400 “nodes” in San Francisco by Verizon, while similar projects are underway in Houston and New York City.

The wireless industry has always been moving toward miniaturization and powering down, using these smaller footprint antennas to better cover targeted areas.

The unspoken heart of the opposition, though, seems to be financial.

The cities opposing the bill currently enjoy lease rates of up to $2,000 per site location, and the bill would cap the rate statewide to $250. This rate cap is an acknowledgment that California coverage forecasts are predicting 30,000 to 50,000 antenna installations will be required in the state over the next five to seven years, and that ”…telecommunications facilities in the rights-of-way is a matter of statewide concern.”

Injury Victims Have Hope

But safety is also a concern. If you’ve lost a loved one to wrongful death, suffered a personal injury, or sustained property damage due to negligence, don’t hesitate to contact us for a free consultation.