ANDOVER — The Andover Zoning Board (ZBA) held a public hearing on September 17 for Vertex Towers LLC. The company’s representative presented two proposals for cell towers located near the ends of shared Routes 4 and 11 through Andover. The room was packed, with strong opinions expressed both for and against building more towers for better cell reception in Andover.
The complete discussion of the application for a Special Exception and Variance for the two sites may be read on the ZBA’s web pages, at andover-nh.gov/zoning-board-adjustment. (As always, links in articles can be clicked on The Beacon website, www.andoverbeacon.com.) The ZBA public hearing resumes on October 15, at 7 PM.
Regarding the State Investigation of Health Effects of 5G: There is a troubling aspect to federal law regarding cell tower placement. The only objections legally possible are on the basis of aesthetics: whether towers conform to Andover’s Master Plan to “preserve the natural and historic character” of our town. The Federal Telecommunications Act of 1996 specifically prohibits communities from rejecting antenna siting on the basis of concerns about human health or environmental impact.
As you read that last sentence, you may be saying to yourself, “What? That’s crazy!” but it is a fact. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) wanted to encourage the rapid build-out of wireless voice communications, so Congress swept away local opposition with the Telecommunications Act of 1996. You can read the FCC’s position at fcc.gov/general/telecommunications-act-1996, and read the law in its entirety at congress.gov/bill/104th-congress/senate-bill/652.
The FCC’s safe levels of exposure were set in the context of war-fighting soldiers’ military exposure to electromagnetic radiation, but then these risky levels were deemed acceptable for the general population by the industry experts who sit on the FCC. Other countries set a safe level 100 times lower than the US.
Some critics have drawn parallels to the tobacco, petroleum, and pharmaceutical industries, whose lobbyists for years petitioned policymakers to ignore the impact of their products on human and environmental health. In such a scenario, the industry only has to worry about increasing demand for their products and is given a free pass on any subsequent downside.
Many townspeople expressed their concern to the ZBA about how close the radiating antennas would be to their homes, and whether that proximity would scare away potential buyers when they eventually want to sell their homes. Many of these same residents implored the ZBA to hear expert testimony from Dr. Kent Chamberlain, a University of New Hampshire engineering professor with expertise in antenna design, who sat on the 2020 Commission to Study the Environmental and Health Effects of Evolving 5G Technology.
I also served on this commission as the Representative from the New Hampshire House standing committee on Science, Technology, and Energy. You can read the 5G Commission’s final report here:
gencourt.state.nh.us/statstudcomm/committees/1474/reports/5G%20final%20report.pdf
Is the future “LaserPhones”? In 1996, Congress had no idea how far phone technology would progress by 2024, but now we can predict where wireless technology is heading today. Cell service providers would like to sell you more of their product, of course.
Not just voice communication, but high-speed internet and even-higher speed-streaming services will come over their wireless WiFi and 5G networks. About half of us have already dropped our landline phone service. Soon, you’ll be able to kiss your cable company goodbye, they hope.
Technically, to provide higher speed and fidelity, higher frequencies are required. The downside is that, as frequency and fidelity improve, the range of the transmitters falls off. Compare the sound of FM to AM radio for a vivid example of this.
FM stations can broadcast good quality for 30 to 40 miles on higher frequencies, while AM stations can be heard imperfectly hundreds, even thousands, of miles away (with a decently large antenna). Cell phones are “radio” as well, so the same principle applies.
The industry would eventually like to achieve high speeds by placing many small antennas at close intervals, just a few hundred yards apart. You can see such a system is already being installed around Concord Heights. One easy-to-find antenna is near the Shell station across the street from the rink, and looks like a four-foot white plastic cylinder on a phone pole. Several more dot the road past Heritage Heights.
Eventually, wireless speeds hit a limit to how high radio frequencies can go; eventually, they cross up into microwave. Microwave begins to resemble a flashlight beam on a foggy night. It has a relatively short range of a few miles, and is essentially line-of-sight. Microwave is scattered and partially blocked by humidity in the air.
Radio, microwave, and visible light are all the same electromagnetic phenomenon, only differing in frequency, and that frequency determines how and whether our bodies can interact with it. Most people can’t perceive radio, although there have been stories of people hearing Mets games through their dental work, or getting migraines or tumors! You can cook bacon with microwaves, and you can see or even get a sunburn from higher frequencies.
Eventually, even radio-frequency communication will be rendered obsolete, and probably be replaced by a faster, safer technology, like optical (visible light) transmission. But can we wait until then?