As a follow up to this Mar 12 story that got picked up by Newsweek . . .
Adapted from an article By Jessica Mensch, Mar 23, 2019 | Original article here.
RIPON, CA — Parents in Ripon have been fighting for a Sprint cell tower to come down for roughly two years and they’re calling the company’s latest decision a major win.
“It’s been a very hard battle, a very hard battle. And I’m hoping we’ve reached the end of it," mother Kellie Prime said. Now, these parents can breathe a sigh of relief after learning the cell tower outside of their sons’ former school, Weston Elementary, will soon be moved. Prime and Monica Ferrulli have been fighting for this since their sons, Kyle and Mason, were diagnosed with cancer.
“Talking to specialists in the field, scientists, our own doctors," Ferrulli explained. "All the information that we gathered indicated that that tower could be a factor in their illness.”
These moms believe that the tower had any impact on their children’s cancer, especially as more students and teachers fell ill. They say a total of eight were diagnosed with cancer in the past couple of years.
Prime said
“Having so many at one school in the district, with that tower being the one thing that sets Weston apart from the other schools, it’s the only thing we had to look into,"
After holding protests, and taking their substantial evidence showing harms from 24/7 exposures to pulsed, data-modulated, Radio-frequency Electromagnetic Microwave Radiation (RF-EMR) to the school board, Sprint now says it plans to move the cell tower.
Adrienne Norton, Sprint Corporate Communications, said.
“We do understand and respect the views of the community. We’re committed to being good neighbors,"
The company stresses, that the tower is fully compliant with state and federal regulations.
“It’s actually operating at less than one percent, hundreds of times below federal limits,” Norton explained. That is what makes this decision so important.
Sprint’s decision to move the cell tower recognizes that compliance with federal FCC RF-EMR exposure limits is not protective and, therefore "being hundreds of times below the federal RF-EMR exposure limits" is meaningless.
There are cancer clusters all over the US in areas surrounding cell towers that are compliant with FCC RF-EMR exposure limits. Another recent public health crisis that was reported to the FCC was for a Crown Castle cell tower in Sebastopol, CA: five deaths and 12 illnesses over the last ten years in a three-story apartment building that is 260 feet from the Crown Castle cell tower. Peak RF-EMR exposures on the third floor of this building were measured between 1,000,000 µW/m² and 3,600,000 µW/m²m which is 10% to 36% of the absurdly high FCC RF-EMR exposure limit of 10,000,000 µW/m² for frequencies of 1500 MHz or higher. Since so-called "Small Cells" that are as close at 15 feet from homes routinely exhibit exposures that are "compliant" but in this 1% to 30% of the FCC-limit range, then the densified 4G and 5G infrastructure rollout should not be allowed in residential areas or near schools.
Note: µW/m² is millionths of a Watt passing through a one square meter area.
Furthermore, the FCC RF-EMR exposure limit considers only rate of exposure and not the total dose of RF-EMR delivered over time, as shown in this analysis of the Sebastopol RF-EMR exposures.
The Ripon Unified School District echoed this message, saying in a statement:
“Ripon USD asked for multiple independent tests that have shown that the cell tower is operating well within standard state and federal limits. Regardless, we take the ongoing cancer cases seriously and want our families to feel comfortable in their school.”
There’s no timeline yet for when the tower will be moved or where it’s going. But, these mother’s say, the sooner the better. Prime said:
“We don’t want other families to have to see what we’ve seen in our children. And watch their kids fight for their lives like our children have had to do. And if this helps to save one more child from getting sick, then it’s worth it to us."