In Israel: More Cellular Antennas = Less Radiation?
by Jesse Fox, Tel Aviv, Israel on 02.24.08
Controversy over cellular antennas is nothing new in Israel. The battle lines are clear: on one side, the cellular companies and the Environmental Protection Ministry, on the other side, wide segments of the public, who fear possible health risks to themselves and their children and the economic effects of cellular antennas in proximity to their homes (which drastically lower property values).
The companies and government authorities are pushing for more and more cellular antennas to be erected on top of buildings and in open spaces, based on the claim that a greater number of antennas will mean less radiation emitted by antennas and cellular phones.
Much of the public, on the other hand, while mostly unwilling to give up on their cell phones (though such a trend is taking shape on a small scale), vehemently objects to additional antennas, fearing that they will wake up one morning to find a few on their neighbor's (or their own) roof. Anecdotal evidence suggests a strong correlation between disproportional levels of cancer and proximity to cellular antennas in certain places. For this reason, cellular antenna towers have been violently protested and even burnt down.
The latest shot in this battle is a report released last week by the cellular companies regarding antenna to population ratios in various locales around the country. The baseline for the survey is Tel Aviv, where one "broadcasting station" (antenna tower) serves 581 cellular customers, and the average distance between customer and antenna is 155 meters. On the other end of the scale is the town of Um al-Fahm, where two cellular towers serve a population of 32,000 - one tower per 16,000 customers. Thus, according to the companies, antennas in Um al-Fahm emit 1,600 times as much radiation as antennas in Tel Aviv, and cell phones emit 59 times more.
Not to worry though, say the cellular companies, even in Um al-Fahm, no one is exposed to radiation that exceeds legal limits.
The Forum for Cellular Sanity, an NGO representing the public interest regarding on the issue, responded that if the cellular companies want to expand their infrastructure networks, laws regulating radiation emissions should be made stricter and the public should be notified before antennas are installed around their homes.
Via:: Ynet (Hebrew)
I think Israel might be ahead of the game when it comes to research on cellular phone effects on health. Only last week there was some interesting, perhaps worrying, findings on high levels of cell phone usage with cancer of the salivary gland.
Having said that one of the arguments for more receivers is that it would lessen the power required by phones when transmitting...
The companies know that "Legal" does not mean safe..... and let's not forget this is the same country that once sprayed DDT on the heads of newcomers (immigrants).
It would take years to gauge the actual effect of cellular radiation (legal or not) on living creatures.
- how long did it take with cancer sticks?
It's not actually that unreasonable that what they're saying will be true. In order to reach the entire service area they have to cover, the power levels on the transmitters at the antenna have to be much higher, and everyone's cell phones also have to use more power.
The ambient radiation isn't going to change much for people not right next to an antenna, because that's going to still be near the minimum level where the network is usable -- there's no motivation for them to make it higher than that. While there will be more people living close to antennas, each individual antenna will be outputting far less power, and the radius in which an elevated power level will be present will be greatly reduced.
For cell phone users, on the other hand, it's a huge benefit. Modern phones are very good at power management and at turning down the amount of power used for transmission whenever possible. As this vector for radiation exposure effects far more people than living near the towers does, and as the distances are far shorter (resulting in much higher effective exposure), reducing the transmission power of the individual phones is going to have the largest effect on RF exposure.
Is it a net win? Almost certainly, but it's hard to tell, without a better understanding of how RF energy does and doesn't effect people. There are other side benefits, too, like making the network much more resilient against failure.
It's doubtful that cellular phone radiation has negative health impacts. It isn't ionizing, and your daily exposure is small compared to the natural non-ionizing radiaton you're exposed to from space.
A scientific link that explains ionizing and non-ionizing radiation:
http://chemed.chem.purdue.edu/genchem/topicreview/bp/ch23/radiation.php
Simpler (but good) explaination:
http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/cell-phone-radiation.htm