NNSquad - Network Neutrality Squad
[ NNSquad ] Misleading article by George Ou regarding cell tower radiation
Misleading article by George Ou regarding cell tower radiation - - - Living closer to a cell tower means lower RF exposure: http://bit.ly/9uS7bo (Digital Society) - - - Lauren's comments: I'm forwarding this misleading item from George Ou not because I want to get into a discussion of the continuing controversies regarding the health effects (or non-effects) of microwave radiation on human biology. Despite Ou's simplistic assertion about millions of test subjects, the fact is that tests to date continue to yield conflicting results -- and true longitudinal studies are few and far between. While it is generally assumed that non-ionizing radiation doesn't create biological effects beyond "simple heating" -- and studies to date tend to cluster perceived effects very close to statistical "noise" levels, the general consensus is that we still have much to learn in this area. But Ou's piece is an excellent example of a misleading presentation, through his omission (purposely or not) of a key factor. Ou's premise is that under normal conditions your cell phone emits more radiation when you are farther from a cell site than when you are close by. True enough, assuming power control is working properly, though I'll note that it is not uncommon for non-CDMA, non-3G systems to have poor power control implementations. But you'll note the hook to Ou's piece was protests about a proposed cell tower near schools. Therein is the clue to the misdirection in Ou's article. Ou has chosen to draw comparisons between the radiation received from a cell tower, vs. the radiation received from a cell phone. But of course, when you are near a cell tower, you receive radiation from that tower *whether you are using a cell phone or not*. And when you use a cell phone near a cell tower, you receive radiation *both* from the cell phone and the cell tower. True, you're very likely receiving much more radiation from the phone than the tower, while the phone is *actively* in use. But what if you're not a cell phone user? Or you hardly use a cell phone? Or you're too young to have a cell phone? Or ... Obviously, if you live near that tower you're getting more radiation than you would if you weren't living near it, whether you use a cell phone or not. Parents of primary school children with a nearby cell tower aren't likely concerned with comparisons with cell phone radiation, they're concerned with the radiation exposure that all persons in the vicinity are being exposed to from the tower in absolute terms -- not relative to cell phone radiation levels. You can choose not to use a cell phone. But if you're a child in school, you can't choose not to accept the radiation from a nearby tower. Now, it may well be the case that time will demonstrate that indeed there are no negative health effects from these transmissions, either from cell towers (which tend to run at relatively high power levels), or from microcells (which tend to run at lower levels), or from cell phones (which indeed produce high field intensities when on calls, due to their proximity to the body). And there is a continuing conflict between cell phone users' demands for better coverage vs. protests over the placement of cell sites. But Ou's tactic in this case of using comparative RF levels between towers and phones, neglecting the entire category of persons near towers who are (for example) not cell phone users, demonstrably undercuts his argument that "When a cell tower is closer to you, you're effectively exposed to much lower levels of radio frequency." Good try, George. --Lauren-- Lauren Weinstein (lauren@vortex.com) http://www.vortex.com/lauren Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800 Co-Founder, PFIR (People For Internet Responsibility): http://www.pfir.org Co-Founder, NNSquad (Network Neutrality Squad): http://www.nnsquad.org Founder, GCTIP (Global Coalition for Transparent Internet Performance): http://www.gctip.org Founder, PRIVACY Forum: http://www.vortex.com Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy Lauren's Blog: http://lauren.vortex.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/laurenweinstein Google Buzz: http://bit.ly/lauren-buzz