Today the Newport News Planning Commission will discuss placing a tower at Nelson Elementary. By SABINE HIRSCHAUER | 247-4536 July 16, 2008
NEWPORT NEWS - — They can look like tall flagpoles. Or oversized trees. Or monstrous cactuses out West.
But no matter how they're disguised, they're still cell towers.
And as they increasingly dot the landscape, the towers face growing opposition from critics who say they're ugly and unesthetic misfits that drive down property values and may be harmful to one's health.
While there are dozens of towers on and around the Peninsula, the Newport News City Council recently denied a request from nTelos to wedge a 131-foot tall cell tower between a pool and playground at Magruder Elementary School in southeast Newport News.
Commentary: Is it just the crazies who think cell phone radiation causes cancer?
By Kiera Butler July/August 2008 Issue
twenty-eight years ago, Arthur Firstenberg had a dental X-ray. He's been on the run ever since.
That X-ray, he says, made him excruciatingly sensitive to electromagnetic fields—the low-level radiation that emanates from power lines, microwaves, and, most vexingly, cell phones. Now 58, Firstenberg has spent more than a decade crisscrossing the country, trying to find the last unwireless spot in America. When cell phone towers came to New York City, he moved upstate. Then he headed to Mendocino, California. These days, he lives out of his '87 Nissan station wagon in Santa Fe; a house is too risky. "Your neighbor could get wifi, and then you have to leave and hunt for a new home."
Toronto Public Health advises kids and teens to limit cell phone usage, as healt
Saturday, July 12, 2008 - 01:32 PM By: Irene Preklet, with a report from The Canadian Press
Toronto - It seems that kids and cell phones go hand in hand these days - but parents might want to re-think how much they let their kids actually use the devices.
Toronto's public health agency had advised children and teens to limit their cell phone use until more is known about the potential health effects of them.
Marblehead - There’s something the government, the telecommunication industry and the corporate media don't want you to know: Invisible things can hurt you.
The invisible things in question are low-level electromagnetic waves emitted by cell phones and cell-phone towers. Three neurosurgeons appearing on Larry King confessed that the danger is such that they never put their cell phones up to their heads, but at least cell-phone use is a matter of choice. The antennas going up at the Jewish Community Center and on the Village Street water tower are another matter. Neighbors, some of whose property line is only 2 feet away, will be involuntarily affected by low-level radiation 24 hours a day. The Veterans Middle School is within a 750-foot radius of the water tower, where six more antennas will soon join those already there. Kids at Hillel and the JCC are the new JCC single antenna’s nearest neighbors.
Two new laws placing restrictions on wireless telephones while driving took effect July 1 with a couple of agencies offering a grace period.
The first prohibits all drivers from using a handheld wireless telephone while operating a motor vehicle. Motorists 18 and over, however, may use a hands-free device.
The second law prohibits drivers under the age of 18 from using any type of wireless telephone, even a hands-free device, while operating a motor vehicle.
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