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Charlottetown City Council called the
public meeting because Rogers Wireless wants to install a 45 metre
(147 foot) cell-phone transmitting tower along the Confederation
Trail behind 185 Mount Edward Road.
Opposition, led by Catherine Mullally, is growing. A committee
pamphlted the surrounding are in the days prior to the meeting,
calling on residents to attend. They did and heard Magda Haves, a
professor at Trent University who specializes in the study of how
radio frequencies affect living organisms.
She
told Charlottetown council that government is slow to take up a
growing concern that radio waves do harm people and animals.
Government has yet to accept any of the science concerning
“non-thermal” affects from microwave radio energy (cell phone
radiation).
“Because we can’t see it or hear it, we assume it’s safe and that
may not be the case,” she said.
Exposure to radio frequency radiation is increasing year by year as
wireless networks now join the ever-growing list of devices close to
people that emit radio energy. She said that use of radio frequency
energy is moving into the realm of dangerous excess. She noted a
parallel from history, where at one time shoe stores were using
X-Rays on children in the store to see if shoes fit.
It was soon learned that such
frivolous use of X-Rays is too dangerous for the benefit gained. The
same could now be said about the use of radio frequency energy to
power more and more consumer and business goods.
“We are moving very quickly into the frivolous category,” said
Havas. She kept her presentation for the most part neutral regarding
the specifics of the Charlottetown tower, but did stray away from
that neutrality when she put special emphasis on the proximity of
childcare and school facilities to the proposed tower site off Mount
Edward Road.
Her presentation warned how children are more vulnerable to
microwave radiation than adults.
Science shows an increase in brain tumors for people using cell
phones themselves, continued Havas. A collection of symptoms known
as Electro Hyper Sensitivity is also a scientifically accepted
condition that affects three per cent of the population in general
and 35 percent of the population show some of the symptoms caused
solely by exposure to radio energy. Havas received a standing
ovation.
Prior to her presentation, Rachel Cassidy from Rogers Wireless spoke
to the group, saying the tower is needed to provide for the
increasing demand of the market, including digital signals that will
allow wireless data reception inside buildings. One of Rogers’
towers is working atop BDC Place on Kent Street, she said, but
another is needed further out in the city. Cassidy said Rogers “does
not make its proposals lightly,” and said the tower may be large,
but the power it will radiate is not. “Hopefully you will trust us,”
said
April 2007 |