Radiation Concerns Surround New Cell Tower in Cattle Landing

Residents are also worried about potential health risks from the tower’s radiation, concerns supported by respected environmental research from the US and other countries, including the National Library of Medicine and the National Institute of Health.

 

Waluco Maheia, Chairman, Cattle Landing Village

“We found out that a few villagers were not in consent or not in support of the current location for the cell tower and a lot of the concerns are around the health hazard of the cell towers.  A lot of the concerns are, yes, the health impacts that could affect villagers.  So that is the main concern around where the current location of the tower is situated. We had agreed to have a follow-up consultation with representation from Digi within this month of January.  One of the villagers, the individual, I believe, who is progressing with the petition, we encourage that he exercises his right to go out and find out who is in support or not in support of the cell tower.  We did encourage him to go and do the petition and the petition has been submitted and it is an eye opener for us.  It is something that the village council will be following up on and we still plan on having that consultation with BTL and Digi with the community.  And more so, to educate about how a cell tower works, what can be the impacts.  As far as self-education that I’ve done, cell towers, like your cell phone and internet modem within your home fall under what we call non-ionizing radiation, meaning that it only produces heat, but not enough energy to damage human cells.  So it is in the realm of the non-ionizing radiation, unlike ionizing radiation which produces more of like the gamma rays and heavier radiation.”

 

People in Cattle Landing have heard from their neighbors in San Jose and Emeri Grove that Digi plans to install cell towers in their communities too, but those towers will be placed more than half a mile away from the nearest homes. This distance is well beyond the recommended safe distance of 500 meters to avoid potential harmful radiation effects.