3/14/03 - NATE Conference speakers address tower safety. Wireless Week.com, February 25, 2002. Note especially the last four paragraphs on lightning safety. Antennas on rooftops are susceptible as well. A ground potential rise can kill humans and animals without a direct lightning hit.

12/15/02 - Strike Back at Lightning by Vikki Kipp. Site Management & Technology, Sep 1, 2002.
While humans have 1 in 6,000 odds of being struck by lightning, towers have 1 in 1 odds of being struck. It's basically inevitable.

Del Parkinson has prepared two brief but significant overview documents that should be of help to those of you who are dealing with siting applications:

• the differences between analog and digital wireless technologies
• technical specifications that are often left off from wireless facilities applications and what you should be asking for
  

7/19/02 - Lightning strikes rooftop mobile phone and paging antennas: two people sent to the hospital.

4/18/02 - "How Exposure to Base-station Radiation Can Adversely Affect Humans" (pdf)
Dr. Gerard Hyland's explanation of the bioeffects that can arise from radiation levels found around base station installations. It's a good piece to give people who are just starting to ask questions about possible health effects. (In html format)

Expert testimony presented to a committee of the Virginia legislature on local and county authority to site commercial wireless transmission towers. The point is clearly made that tower realty companies have no standing under the TCA of 1996 nor with the FCC. While some of this testimony is specific to Virginia law, much of it (indicated in red in PDF file) applies across the board in all state to all county and local government entities.

11/27/01- Lightning Burns Fire Chief's Home - A lightning bolt to a 199-foot communications tower likely caused a Monday blaze at the business and home of Blendon Fire Chief Russ Hirdes and his wife, according to Assistant Chief Tom Meeuwsen.

9/19/01- MAI appraiser cites Appraiser Journal & Institute as source for information that cell towers act as an "external obsolescence" which will devalue residential property. This site is minutes from the Vernon Township Board of Adjustment hearing of August 29, 2000. This site uses statistics showing just how much devaluation can occur.

These statements from medical doctors about the possible public health risks of mobile phone antenna base stations exposure appeared on page 15 of the Fall 1997 issue of Network News, the newsletter of The EMR Alliance.

This link contains URL's for articles from various industry and government web sites that discuss safety hazards and liability issues from wireless telecommunications installations. These include back-up battery problems including fire, explosion, and leaking of sulfuric acid as well as liability for RF interference with a variety of industrial, medical and home electronic equipment in the neighborhood and real estate property devaluation.

Real Estate Finance Review, Winter 1997 article discussing the property devaluation impacts of rooftop antenna siting.

These articles can help to build the "public safety" and "preserving property values" arguments and provide "substantial evidence in a written record" to deny permits for wireless telecommunications facilities in close proximity to schools, homes, and day care and nursing home facilities such as on the community water tower, as well as those proposed for existing structures such as roof tops, historic structures and churches. The equipment shelter/hut that is required for the operation of the antennas presents a clear hazard to the safety of the neighborhood. The cost of liability insurance to cover all of these hazards along with decreases in property values should discourage churches and historic sites from hosting wireless facilities despite the promise of revenue from the wireless provider.

Information Provided by Wireless Providers
This is the information pamphlet provided by T-Mobile mobile phone provider in answer to questions about the environmental effects of radiofrequency radiation coming from base station antennas. At the end of each topic covered in the pamphlet, this attribution appears: "Information sourced from the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association."

The position on radiofrequency radiation risk to public health found repeatedly throughout the pamphlet is: "The consensus view among experts - both in the United States and internationally - is that exposure to levels emitted by wireless antennas is not hazardous to public health."

Check out all the info on this site. Copy the "Calculations on the Mechanical Failure of Towers" for your Select Board. It does the math and geometry to show that towers need to have setbacks that are 2-21/2 times their height in order not to collapse on surrounding property, streets, and buildings. It also makes the point that things attached to towers tend to project outward when they are blown off. Nothing simply falls straight down to the ground. Falling ice is a problem as well. If you are in a tropical climate like Florida or Hawaii, a tower will still be subject to storms with strong winds so large setbacks are needed due to tower collapse and equipment being blown off the top of the towers. Orange County, Florida, home of Disney World, MGM Studios theme park, Sea World, etc., has set backs five the times height of any tower for this very reason. Copy this and distribute to your local planning and zoning board members.

The New Hampshire Office of State Planning has written a guide for the Preservation of Scenic Areas and Viewsheds. Although written in 1993, this document provides thoughtful information and important planning strategies for locals whose viewsheds may be threatened by the proposed construction of telecommunications facilities. " This document suggests a process for: identifying scenic areas in a community providing a clear statement in the master plan about goals for preservation of scenic values, and incorporating specific policies into the zoning ordinance, subdivision regulations and site plan review regulations that will enhance the aesthetic qualities that define the community and make it unique. (PDF document)