With areas around the Ballarat region to become some of the first areas in Australia to receive NBN Co’s wireless solution, there has been a lot of hullabaloo about the erection of the towers to actually deliver the service.
I respect that people have the right to choose whether they have the towers on their land or not, but to go with the “they will give us cancer” angle is just incorrect.
Numerous studies – including those done by the World Health Organisation – have shown no conclusive evidence that wireless towers cause cancer.
| Cellular Phone Towers |
“Some people have expressed concern that living, working, or going to school near a cell phone tower might increase the risk of cancer or other health problems. At this time, there is very little evidence to support this idea. In theory, there are some important points that would argue against cellular phone towers being able to cause cancer.”
“First, the energy level of radiofrequency (RF) waves is relatively low, especially when compared with the types of radiation that are known to increase cancer risk, such as gamma rays, x-rays, and ultraviolet (UV) light. The energy of RF waves given off by cell phone towers is not enough to break chemical bonds in DNA molecules, which is how these stronger forms of radiation may lead to cancer.”
“A second issue has to do with wavelength. RF waves have long wavelengths, which can only be concentrated to about an inch or two in size. This makes it unlikely that the energy from RF waves could be concentrated enough to affect individual cells in the body.”
“Third, even if RF waves were somehow able to affect cells in the body at higher doses, the level of RF waves present at ground level is very low — well below the recommended limits. Levels of energy from RF waves near cell phone towers are not significantly different than the background levels of RF radiation in urban areas from other sources, such as radio and television broadcast stations.”
“For these reasons, most scientists agree that cell phone antennas or towers are unlikely to cause cancer.”
In fact, you are more likely to get cancer from UV sunlight. Apparently.
People want these services, but they don’t want the infrastructure that delivers them.
And there’s no evidence it is affecting them anyway.