Our neighbors and other DeKalb County residents at the March 6 hearing on a bill to curb cell phone towers on school properties on HB 1197, being held up by the Georgia House Intragovernmental Coordination Committee. (more…)

Posted in Dangers of Cell Towers, Health Concerns, Legislative Action, News Coverage, Our Activities, Our Supporters

Tuesday, March 6 11:00 am, ROOM 515 Coverdell Legislative Office Building (CLOB) Room 515, 18 Capitol Sq SW, Atlanta, GA 30334.

See the full text of HB 1128 (Statewide) and HB 1197 (Covers Schools in DeKalb County).

Bill Would Ban Cell Phone Towers On School Property: MyFoxATLANTA.com

Posted in Health Concerns, Legislative Action, News Coverage, Our Activities, Our Supporters

February 27, 2012: DeKalb House Delegation met today at the Coverdell Legislative Office Building — where the Environmental Committee (including Rep. Drenner) presented their findings on cell phone towers.  Rep. Drenner obtained the remaining signatures needed to support the introduction of the bill.

WSBTV Ch2 was there and reported: Renting school space for cell towers idea sparks debate

FULL TEXT HB 1128 (Statewide) and FULL TEXT HB 1197 (Covers Schools in DeKalb County).

Posted in Health Concerns, Legal Issues, Legislative Action, News Coverage

February 23, 2012:  Five representatives — both the Republican and Democrat — co-sponsored Rep. Karla Drenner’s bill today.

SUMMARY: A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Code Section 20-2-600 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to the leasing of public school property for private purposes authorized, so as to prohibit the leasing of certain public school property for the purpose of erecting telecommunications towers; to provide an effective date; to provide for applicability; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.

Full text of House Bill 1128

See also the FULL TEXT of HB 1197 (Covers Schools in DeKalb County).

Posted in Health Concerns, Legislative Action, Our Supporters

February 21, 2012:

Lawmakers today held a hearing on a proposal to ban cellphone towers from school property.    State Rep. Karla Drenner, D-Avondale Estates,  plans to introduce legislation banning construction of the towers on school property.

Over fifteen neighbors attended from our Briarcliff Heights neighborhood, as well as concerned parents from MLK, Briarlake, and GET THE CELL OUT ATL.  Dr. Drenner is well-versed in the area of radiation and its effects, understands that the lack of research today on cell tower radiation does not necessarily mean towers are safe — calling instead for precautionary measures in the placement of these towers so close to children in their developmental stages.  Rep. Drenner has four post-graduate degrees and serves on several House committees related to this issue, including Energy, Utilities, and Telecommunications; Health and Human Services; Natural Resources and Environment.

Thank you to Dr. Drenner for her immediate and quick action regarding this issue, and for sponsoring a bill in the House to address the placement of cell towers on school grounds!

Rep. Karla Drenner

Posted in Health Concerns, Legislative Action, Our Supporters

Yesterday we kindly asked the ACS to update their site, which has not been updated since mid-2010.  Got a nice response that my comments had been forwarded to the review committee (presumably for the website).  You can lodge your own comments here (select in drop-down box:  Questions/Comments about the website).

To ACS:

Please consider that many people look to ACS for accurate and current information.  Much of the scientific community agrees now that there is a lack of adequate study on long term exposure to RF (whether from phones or towers) and that conclusions should not be drawn in favor of a ubiquitous label of RF radiation being “safe.”  It is particularly worrisome to me that the current page does not clearly highlight this fact, and instead seems to argue that RF exposure is indeed safe. (more…)

Posted in Health Concerns, Our Activities, Research Developments

So what do our neighbors the CDC say about cell towers, anyway?  Not much at all, as it seems.  It’s interesting to see that the CDC publicly available information addresses CELL PHONE use (intermittent exposure to RF at your own choosing) but not CELL TOWER radiation (24/7 exposure to RF you can’t escape).  However, even the CDC notes that even cell phone exposure is a possible health risk and there needs to be more research.  Read the CDC posting here.  Do you have other research we don’t know about from the CDC?  Please send it to us.

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Posted in Health Concerns, Research Developments

In response to the IARC classifying RF as a possible human carcinogen, WHO announced in a recent factsheet (June 2011) that:

“Mobile phone use is ubiquitous with an estimated 4.6 billion subscriptions globally.    The electromagnetic fields produced by mobile phones are classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer as possibly carcinogenic to humans.    Studies are ongoing to more fully assess potential long-term effects of mobile phone use.    WHO will conduct a formal risk assessment of all studied health outcomes from radiofrequency fields exposure by 2012.”

Posted in Health Concerns, Research Developments

IARC CLASSIFIES RADIOFREQUENCY ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS AS POSSIBLY CARCINOGENIC TO HUMANS
Lyon, France, May 31, 2011 ‐‐ The WHO/International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) has classified radiofrequency electromagnetic fields as possibly carcinogenic to humans (Group 2B), based on an increased risk for glioma, a malignant type of brain cancer, associated with wireless phone use near the head.

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Posted in Health Concerns, Research Developments

Here is a copy of the plan for the tower that puts the tower less than 200 feet (192′ to be exact) from the door where every day children are dropped off by bus.  In case you were wondering, there are published studies in the US as recently as 2010 documenting that children are more susceptible to RF radiation.

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Posted in Dangers of Cell Towers, Health Concerns, School Board Actions, Towers Facts, Zoning Issues

Sent this email to the principals of Margaret Harris and IHM tonight:

The local neighborhood, which contains a number of health care professionals, have been collecting published scientific studies investigating the safety of these large cell towers.  On our site posted a number of published scientific, peer-reviewed articles and information regarding documented health effects.

Please take a few moments and check out our site page here: http://briarcliffheights.org/health-research/

We are deeply concerned for the health and safety of the entire neighborhood, including your students.  We urge you to research this issue on your own.

Regards,

Briarcliff Heights Community Action Group

Posted in Health Concerns

In case you needed even more proof that these towers are dangerous, take a look at all the notices on the next closest 150′ tower located near Toco Hills (LaVista Road and N. Druid Hills).  Worker’s health is important enough for the Federal Government to issue these OSHA-style warnings to workers.

Warnings regarding RF exposure levels at the base tower, posted on the barbed wire fence.

Posted in Dangers of Cell Towers, Health Concerns, Towers Facts