Cell towers all over

[ueberooo]

I realize this is a way way way off topic topic. But I'm wondering if anyone else thinks that they've observed getting mild headaches from either long cell conversations or from spending some time right in front (2 or 3 blocks) of a cell tower.

While googling this I'm seeing yes, there are some people on the internets that agree; but because this is among ~ 1 billion people, that that includes very odd cases. I'm wondering if from a smaller audience, someone shares this observation or suspicion.

Also, below, is a google result that I'm still reading, but that so far already worries me.

one google result

4. From an Israeli study published in the International Journal of Cancer Prevention, Vol. 1, No. 2, April 2004, Wolf and Wolf reported a fourfold increase in the incidence of cancer in people living within 350 meters of a cell phone tower as compared to the Israeli general population. They also reported a tenfold increase specifically among women.

 

[Tempest]

Do you get the same thing close to an airport?

 

[bluestream]

A friends Grandfather has a cell tower on his land and they pay him $6000 per month...

 

[IndyIan]

My wife is a teacher and in her school board there are more than a few parents who have kids with headaches from wireless networks recently installed in many of the schools.
I think there is something to microwave radiation, otherwise people wouldn't be complaining, but there is alot of money to make sure we won't hear about anytime soon.

 

[mechanicx]

Originally Posted By: Bluestream
A friends Grandfather has a cell tower on his land and they pay him $6000 per month...


Wow I wished they would build a tower on my land lol.

 

[simple_gifts]

I don't have much worry about towers; I don't live near one. Holding a microwave transmitter 1" from my brain, however, for 3 hours a day is not something I will ever do.

 

[Tempest]

I really have a hard time buying all this danger from cell phones.

Airports have radar and broadcasting equipment that make a cell phone look like a joke. Same goes for air bases and military ships.

Back when I lived in Cali, there was a series of cases where garage door openers across the area would (seemingly) open on their own. Turns out it was the Navy cranking up their broad casting power.

 

[simple_gifts]

Quote:

Same goes for air bases and military ship

So we were directed when in the Air Force to stay from aircraft mounted ECM equipment when they were operating for what reason?

Quote:

A hard time buying


Acceptance is unrelated to the actual possible danger. 8)

 

[Tempest]

Quote:
So we were directed when in the Air Force to stay from aircraft mounted ECM equipment when they were operating for what reason?

Because the power levels are a LOT higher, which is my point. Did they tell you stay away from the radar tower as well? Any major airport or airbase will have a continuous emission of high power radiation.

 

[Cristobal]

All I know is they look like (the place that says "ABANDON HOPE, ALL YE WHO ENTER HERE" at the front entrance), especially when they try to disguise them as trees.

 

[Lead Shoes]

Sometimes I hear like high pitched whines from electronics and stuff that gives me a headache. Never really noticed if I get headaches from phones and power towers, ill have to test that..

 

[PandaBear]

My biased 2 cents here (since I work in a team designing wireless device):

Wireless "radiation" is an electro magnetic wave, just like your TV signal, just like the color your eye see, but on different frequency. They are no where close to the frequency that can hurt you, and they are not radioactive decay like the one in nuclear reactor.

As you can see, they are lower frequency than even visible light.

Now the power the cell phone emit is supposedly limited to about 2W and usually are way lower than that. The tower's power, I do not know, but they are lower the more towers they put up. You have to reduce the range of the original tower so it wouldn't interfere with what the new tower is covering, so it can reuse the same channel in both location (to save $). This is how mobile phone cost is reduced from the original brick to the newer, smaller phone. More towers are reusing the same frequency (the most expensive asset or operation cost) multiple times with weaker power.

As far as I know, the only harmful side effect of these signals is heat. You may cook yourself if you are too close, but you'll feel it before your brain got nuked, and you'll probably get more harm from playing balls under the sun.

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: Tempest
Quote:
So we were directed when in the Air Force to stay from aircraft mounted ECM equipment when they were operating for what reason?

Because the power levels are a LOT higher, which is my point. Did they tell you stay away from the radar tower as well? Any major airport or airbase will have a continuous emission of high power radiation.


They also don't want human and their wireless belonging, metal reflector to interfere with the equipment.

 

[greenaccord02]

Pandabear, armed with science, diffuses the situation.

We had wireless A/B/G in many of our buildings installed and working at full power for a couple months before we told the users (working out bugs in the system). Sure enough, as soon as we told the people about it, there was a rash of headaches widely hypothesized to be related to all of the 'new' radiation in the air.

 

[PandaBear]

Originally Posted By: greenaccord02
Pandabear, armed with science, diffuses the situation.

We had wireless A/B/G in many of our buildings installed and working at full power for a couple months before we told the users (working out bugs in the system). Sure enough, as soon as we told the people about it, there was a rash of headaches widely hypothesized to be related to all of the 'new' radiation in the air.


Those things are regulated to 120 or so mW, a light bulb would cause more headache than that. That's for sure placebo.

Tell them you are going to turn on/off the signals on random day (of course you have to probably disable something so they can't tell whether it is on or off), and have them fill out a card to see which day is it on / off, and at the end of the month show them the correlation and when they are convinced by data that it is placebo, the placebo would disappear.

 

[JimPghPA]

Originally Posted By: Brenden
Sometimes I hear like high pitched whines from electronics and stuff that gives me a headache. Never really noticed if I get headaches from phones and power towers, ill have to test that..


The high pitch noise from electronic devices is probably caused by a high audio frequency switching power-supply in the electronics you are talking about.

 

[JimPghPA]

My Uncle once told me that when he was in the Korean war they use to aim radar at reporters and turn it on for a burst to triger all the flash bulbs in there camera bags.

An Electronic Engineer I once worked with told me of a widow who won a law suit because her husband died of RF exposure from the radars he worked on.

Now there is multi-frequency very low power radar for boats. While it does not have the long range that would be useful at sea, it is safe to humans close to the antenna, less likely to have interference from other radars, and has better close resolution.

 

[IndyIan]

Originally Posted By: greenaccord02
Pandabear, armed with science, diffuses the situation.

We had wireless A/B/G in many of our buildings installed and working at full power for a couple months before we told the users (working out bugs in the system). Sure enough, as soon as we told the people about it, there was a rash of headaches widely hypothesized to be related to all of the 'new' radiation in the air.

Doesn't actual usage of the network make the output of signal increase many times over it just being on?

 

[greenaccord02]

Well, it would increase it slightly but that's the thing. It is almost never used. It's just available.

 

[Vikas]

I am betting that in my lifetime, I will see a day when scientific evidence would prove the disastrous effect of all of the microwave bombardment that we voluntarily put ourselves through.

Fifty years ago, smoking or asbestos was not considered health risk at all.

- Vikas