Moms stand firm against antenna madness

The American town of Hempstead, Long Island, has decreed that phone masts can't be placed within 1500 feet of children, making coverage nearly impossible. The restrictions specify a 1500-foot exclusion zone around homes, day-care centres, schools and churches - all the kinds of places where one might want mobile phone coverage …

[Chris 211]

Burn then all!

Cell towers, the new witches, burn them all!!

As if parents know more then everyone else, NO THEY DONT, in fact due to the amount of time it takes to bring up children parents are more likely to be less educated and worldly wise. Plus the fact that poor people breed more then wealthy/intelligent people compounds the argument for ignoring the breeders. WHO by the way are the real causes of Climate change what with adding to the ever expanding population which is the root cause of most ills including anti-social behaviour. There you go I proved parents are evil the article just proves they are stupid.

[Anonymous Coward]

Listen, I think they're dumbasses too

...but anyone who uses the term "the breeders" is, IMO, being a pompous, self-important prick.

[Anonymous Coward]

PSsst

It was a joke.

[Anonymous Coward]

Ummm no parents are very clevera.

Before they got drunk and had sex and called that a relationship, they went to school and smoked dope and spoke about the Orange People and the Beatles... and then they had kids, and found Jeezers.... and spoke to magic sticks on the wall - because everyone else was doing it... as a form of telepathy to some dead guy in low earth orbit.

Now we have Satan hanging off the aerial... "Ohhhhh my mobile phone is a instrument of the devil... - I must ring the premium number to my saviour - for only $5.99 a minute."

[David Barrett]

Ok, but

Its all well and good saying that people having kids is causing problems, yes over population is going to be a problem, but having more people retired than working in 20, 30 40 years will be just as much of a problem...

Also when your in your 90s in a retirement home... whos gonna wipe your arse?

Only the first post and already its completly off the topic of the original article.

[sT0rNG b4R3 duRiD]

Increasingly off topic

I think the OP was being a bit cynical in how the lower socioeconomic classes are reproducing much more than the higher. It probably has no bearing to the article but you wondered about...

"Its all well and good saying that people having kids is causing problems, yes over population is going to be a problem, but having more people retired than working in 20, 30 40 years will be just as much of a problem."

What if the majority of the young population then are just a bunch of yobos or on the dole?

[Alan W. Rateliff, II]

More retired people a problem?

I have seen this comment numerous times over the short span of my own life, and yet given my interpretation of "retirement" I fail to see how having more retired people than working people is a problem.

These retired people of whom are spoken have put a lifetime of work into the system. During that time, prudent ones of them would have put some of their earned money away into savings and investments. At retirement, a properly invested person would have a gob of money stashed away to spend on their own entertainment, health care, and what-not.

As I work to build up my own IRA, I fail to see the problem here. (And that is "Individual Retirement Account," not "Irish Republican Army" for some who believe I would be more inclined to the later.)

Paris, prudent one.

[Annihilator]

"parents know more than everyone else"

Think it was David Mitchell who said something along the lines of "no, you don't know best, all being a parent proves is that you know how to have sex, or got really lucky one day"

[Anonymous Coward]

Seriously...

F*ck all of you 16 year olds with your mommy and daddy issues. IRL, nobody gives a shit about how you have assburgers, you need therapy, and mummy and dadda didn't wuv you enough when you were wittle.

In case you never had any training in economics or just slept through class, in the majority of industrialized nations the majority of the population is dependent on government programs for their retirements... which are in turn dependent on having more (young) people working than they have retired. The shit you've paid into your government pension or social security in the U.S. has already been spent by your government - they're living month-to-month like most of their population... just scraping by to pay the bills every month. Good for you if you saved for yourself and this doesn't apply to you - on average most folks aren't that responsible. That's not an argument, it's a math equation.

Secondly, most major industrialized countries *might* have break-even population growth if it weren't for immigration. Maybe you're all just irrational nativists around here... but if you're really worried about population growth think about those 2nd and 3rd world countries where all your UN Aid is going to in order to keep infant mortality rates down and starvation at bay with C02 fueled air drops of food and medicine. For the rest of us, having a % of the population living off the dole has always been the case - since feudalism and indentured servitude ended at least. If it weren't for immigrant-fueled tax revenues, unless you're one of the few that has the personal resources saved to survive on your own through retirement, you'd be out on the street were it not for "the breeders".

So in short, shove that holier than thou, ignorant, shit attitude up your ass.

Where's my middle finger icon?

[Evil Genius]

FLK's

Looking at that photo, I think it's too late to stop the mutation.

[The Cube]

I can't be the only one thinking it

Those kids look like they should have Merrick as a surname not part of their address. I wonder which one is John Merrick the third?

[CapitalW]

Photoshop disaster

Looking at that photo makes me think "Photoshop disaster"!!

It reminds me of a Tennessee town that wanted to remove fluoride from their water supply be voting to ban all chemicals. The town engineer stated willingness to do so as long as they were required to boil their water (the vote would have removed chlorine as well). IOW: "clueless is as clueless does".

I also think they hate guinea pigs from their expressions.

[Trygve Henriksen]

Oh well...

Instead of small Cell-towers at a few strategic locations, they'll instead end up with large towers outside town.

You know, the type that can reach for miles and miles and pump out higher effects that the piddly transmitters used in urban models...

[Greg J Preece]

And then for your phone to reach the mast...

...it has to jack up its own power level, pumping more of that horrible, baby-killing radiation into your head.

And then, when enough people have brain cancer, the phone companies will TAKE OVER THE WORLD!

BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA!

[Edwin]

Naaah

Just obey the law and make mobile coverage in town patchy. That should sort the issue pdq

[Fatman]

RE: obey the law....

What the cell operators ought to do is refine the antenna patterns of existing towers to create a DEAD ZONE over this community.

When people start complaining - just point the complainers toward the a-holes who created this issue in the first place.

Then the cell operators could just say: "We are abiding by the wishes of the comminity!'

Fsck them if they can not take a joke. Fscking, whining (l)users!

[Lance 3]

Even better

The carriers should make an example of them to keep other communities from trying the same thing. All offending towers should be turned off and the non-offending towers left as is (no power increases.) How long before the carriers get calls from city officials asking them to turn them back up. Problem solved. Oh, and if they never get the call, then let the community deal with it. They will know who to blame.

[Captain Jack]

People with mobiles against Moms Merrick

How long before someone starts a campaign to get the masts put up because they can't get any signal?

Also I'd hate to be on the helpdesk for the phone providers having to explain that it's really not their fault that nobody can get a signal it's ludities on the line.

[Anonymous Coward]

All they need to do now

Is wall themselves in and everyone will be happy.

[John Mangan]

"emit radiation 800 feet in every direction"

Is that all? Blimey there must be even more of these transmitters than I realised!

Although . . . presumably if the range was just 800 feet the energy would be lower and nobody would have to worry? Reduce the range to 100 feet and put one in everyone's back garden and then all of the property values will be equally affected and everyone's happy, no?

[Anonymous Coward]

@John Mangan

Fuck knows how they'd cope with the knowledge that the sun emits radiation at least 8, 737, 845, 858 miles in every direction.

Wooh, dangerous.

Perhaps we'd be safer somewhere near Pluto where the radiation isn't as strong? No?

[Ian Yates]

Radiation

This is also the usual NIMBY situation where people hear "radiation" and think it automatically means death-ray.

Let's hope they never work out why we call the hot metal things "radiators".

Reminds me of the dihydrogen monoxide scare.

[Galidron]

@Ian Yates

Radiators in the US are extremely rare, at least outside of cars. They probably wouldn't understand the relation between radiator and radiation anyway.

[Richard 12]

Presumbly 'Convectors' just sounded bad?

Given that they work almost entirely by convection...

I wonder if these people would pay to get a pico-cell using their own internet bandwidth, instead of letting them put up a transmitter down the road.

[Geoff Campbell]

Actually....

....why *do* we call the hot metal things "radiators"? They mostly work by convection.

GJC

[John Sturdy]

Counterproductive

The GSM system adjusts the transmission power of mobiles to keep the signal received by the base station at a consistent level, so the further you are from a base station, the more power the handsets will radiate. Since radiated power from one object received by another goes by the inverse square law, and their handsets are a lot closer to the kids' heads than the base stations are, this is likely to increase the radiation received by the kids' heads.

[Anonymous Coward]

RE: Counterproductive

Sir, do you really believe that the good citizens would let their children be corrupted by these products of Satan's . . .umm, satanic mills?

[Anonymous Coward]

The real life Wicker Man?

KILLING 3G WON'T BRING BACK YOUR GOD DAMNED HONEY!!!!1!!!111

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6i2WRreARo#t=1m38s

[Anonymous Coward]

Bringing science into the argument....

....will do absolutely nothing to help where non-technical people are concerned.

You can't make people understand this if they refuse to think, and they also have no concept of the idea of ionising vs non-ionising radiation.

[Anonymous Coward]

Simple answer...

.fuck em.

Take all masts down. Leave them with no signal. Then when the axe murderer cuts the lines and traps them in the bathrooom, with only a mobile for for help, they'll remember this "victory"

[Allan George Dyer]

I was with you...

until you mentioned axe murderers. I mean, are they really that common a problem on Long Island?

[Mike Moyle]

Not an axe-murder, per se...

...but have you ever heard of the town of Amityville...?

It's on Long Island, a bit under 15 miles east of Hempstead (Not "Hampshire", which isn't on Long Island at all -- Mr. Ray, please take note of the MoM link in your article, which has Hempstead as the town in question).

If you go 15 miles WEST of Hempstead, you're in the New York City buroughs of Brooklyn or Queens, which sit on the western end of Long Island and have their fair share of gun and knife murders -- not sure about axes...

[Charles 9]

Did you know...

There is a quaint little community on Long Island...called Amityville. Ring any bells?

[Allan George Dyer]

I thought that was located

in Hollywood, around the corner from Elm Street.

[Anonymous Coward]

Exactly

These are the same dweebs that will cry for lawsuits when they can't get a signal on their cellphone during an emergency.

[Lottie]

how long

till someone needs to call 911 from their mobile and cant... and then sues the telco for not providing coverage?

[Ammaross Danan]

Title

Can't sue a telco for not providing coverage. Would be like me sueing my mobile co. for not giving me "emergency services" while I was stuck wedged in a cave 1000ft underground and needed to get help. Burn them! I should have checked the coverage map!

[Gav]

Clearly DADs couln't give a monkey's

Remember, MOMs are not against cell phones, just the CONSTANT RADIATION emitting from these masts. What they want is cell phone masts placed somewhere that their evil CANCER-CAUSING RADIATION cannot be encountered by anyone, or at least not by CHILDREN.

To sum up; cell phones = good, cell phone reception = bad.

Perfectly reasonable if you ask me.

[Anonymous Coward]

Solution

Reduce the range to zero and have everyone plug their phones into the network.

[TimeMaster T]

Hmmm ...

That makes me wonder how many of the residents, and supporters of this, have wireless access points in their homes so they don't need all those ugly wires running around the house.

[WarrenG]

I wonder why the REG...

Is always gainst Wifi or Mobile Phone radiation groups? Why so pro technology when there is mounting evidence that these transmitters can...

disturb sleep

lead to hormonal imablances

some people even get rashes after these masts are installed?

Now it's true to say most techies won't make it past 60 because of their sedentary lifestyle and lack of personal health, this doesn't mean the rest of soceity should suffer though.

[Anonymous Coward]

Rubbish

let me briefly answer your points:

1) Psychosomatic, unquantifiable, and has no posited physical explanation.

2) Ditto.

3) Maybe they should wash properly.

4) I am a techie, I recently ran a half marathon and have reasonably good personal hygiene. Maybe if you were to properly educate yourself, rather than subscribing to irrational and insulting stereotypes, you wouldn't come across as such a complete idiot?

I think maybe the reason that El Reg appears to be against these 'anti radiation' groups is that they are reporting on the facts, rather than populist drivel spouted by people who haven't even bothered to properly understand the very thing that they are campaigning against.

[sT0rNG b4R3 duRiD]

Proof.

No one really knows.

While radar is definitely harmful, I am less certain about UHF devices that are not directional.

A mobile phone may not have enough energy content to cause any significant thermal injury but accumulated long term exposure is uncertain. Microwaves are non-ionizing but they can transfer heat. There have been theories (not proven as far as I know) of dysfunction of various enzymatic systems but I do not recall exact details.

I wouldn't want to live beside a microwave mast though. A mobile phone's microwave power output is limited to the battery. A mast...

Remember we are only now living in a time where microwaves are close intimate and everywhere. 20 years ago this was not the case. It may not be a serious a threat as ionizing radiation the likes of whom Marie Curie found out not too long after but remember it took a while for her to get sick.

Look up the WHO recommended microwave exposure levels. It's on their website. Yes. someone at the WHO was sufficiently concerned to look into it. Bottom line: No one knows. We know radar is harmful, but less focused microwaves? Who knows.

*** If we are to see any health effects, epidemiologist are going to be waiting a while.

I would NOT however like to be one of the sick that they study and if I can perfectly live my life far away from a mast with minimal use of microwave transmitters, so be it.

If you want to camp beside a microwave transmitter mast and say it's all right be my guest.

Would you still want to bring up your children dancing around one of those now that you've heard my side of the story?

(Remember people thought cigarette smoking was once harmless, in fact good for you.)

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1818349/

[Anonymous Coward]

Present your evidence

...or piss off.

PS. Third hand anecdotal reports of 'they put a cell mast and three weeks later my friend's dog's walker's helper got a hurty leg' isn't evidence.

[Lottie]

any solid evidence

I'm not trying to be a dick, I'm genuinly interested to see how -in controlled reproducable environments and with non anecdotal evidence- wifi or cellphone radiation can cause hormonal imbalances or cause rashes.

Any links?

[Gweilo]

hypochondria

"there is mounting evidence that these transmitters can...

disturb sleep

lead to hormonal imablances

some people even get rashes after these masts are installed?"

Because there isn't any actual evidence, just fear.

I note that fear can cause all those symptoms.

In any case, billions of people now have cell phones and live near masts without ill effect.

[Greg J Preece]

O-ho!

Like a lamb to the slaughter.

[Anonymous Coward]

@I wonder why the REG

Probably because there is NO indisputable evidence that GSM systems cause any health problems, and also because most Reg readers are Tech minded and empiricists to some greater or lesser extent.

[Anonymous Coward]

Commentards

"most Reg readers are Tech minded and empiricists to some greater or lesser extent."

To a lesser extent I'd say. Otherwise, there'd have been some community-wide project to measure various OSes against various metrics, rather than the community-wide project to troll and flame OSX / Win / Nixen at every opportunity.

Tech people are technologists, not scientists.

[Anonymous Coward]

Where is this mounting evidence?

I mean real evidence - not conjecture or supposition.

There is plenty of evidence from real scientists - you know those people who study how things work and why they do what they do and take a bit more convincing than some bloke down the pub telling them because everyone knows mobiles cause cancer- that these masts do no harm whatsoever.

I can't find the link right now but one study springs to mind where they put so-called electromagnetic sensitive people in a room with a box with blinking lights and told them it was a wi-fi access point. Cue lots of oh I can feel it, it gives me a headache, I feel so ill etc even though the box was not transmitting or receiving anything. It was just a box with lights. They then took the box away and starting broadcasting wi-fi and gsm through the room at much higher levels than what you are normally exposed to, but the people didn't know it and every one of them reported how much better they felt now the nasty box was away.

Many other studies have shown the exact same thing. it's all in the mind. You get exposed to far more radiation from the sun every day, but that doesn't bother people. It's just that radiation is a scary word and automatically makes some people think of uranium, nuclear bombs etc and the damage that can do so they put 2 + 2 together and make CANCER OMG!!!!!

As for the symptoms you describe, lack of sleep, hormonal imbalance, rashes - it has been proven all these and far more can be caused directly by the persons own brain - a psychosomatic illness. If they convince themselves something is wrong, then their brain makes it wrong.

[Martin 19]

After reading your post

I discovered my left shoulder is itching, and since I scratched it is beginning to turn red in anticipation of a rash.

This proves that some people get rashes from reading your posts. Ergo, your use of the internet should be banned.

[nation of stupid]

evidence?

Strange people start getting all these problems when phone masts appear, yet they have managed to go through the rest of their lives quite happily while living inside the more powerful radiation fields from TV and radio masts.

Of course every one of those complaining about phone mast radiation won't have a much more dangerous mobile phone in their possession would they, so they would be somewhat hypocritical to complain when they can't get a phone signal.

[peter 45]

Thanks for the scientific argument.....but

......mounting evidence......Can you please provide that evidence please. And I mean properly conducted studies, not just anicdotes.

If you are happy with just anicdotes as evidence, here is one. I worked for a Tetra network operator and we were putting up a new mast. We sent round health questionaires and asked people to fill them in, in the weeks before and after switch on. We got a large number of people complaining of health effects, including, yes you've guessed it, insomnia, disturbed sleep patterns, headaches, and rashes. We had to call of the study when we got hit by a lawsuit claiming we had so destroyed someone's health that they were on long term sick. At that point we had to come clean and confess that the mast had never actually been switched on.

Conclusions

1. if you suggest that something may cause a health problem, lots of people believe it, and some even start getting the suggested symptions

2. People are idiots

P.S. I am going bald. Is tha due to a hormone imbalance caused by mobile phones, or is it because I am getting old?

[disgruntled yank]

Ah, ha!

"disturb sleep

lead to hormonal imablances

some people even get rashes"

It sounds just like puberty, and by gum the heaviest cell phone use seems to be by adolescents, doesn't it. I think you've solved the case, Warren! Your Nobel in medicine will show up soon.

[Geoff Campbell]

"Mounting evidence"

No, what there is, is mounting hysteria, in the absence of any such evidence. And even the mounting hysteria is very limited in scope, being only visible in fuckwits with no concept of how to think.

GJC

[Tom_]

interesting physics

Do the cell towers come complete with an 800 foot radius, spherical faraday cage, so they can just work for people inside them and then the radiation stops at the very specific cut-off point?

[Nexox Enigma]

A shpere is a bit excessive...

"""Do the cell towers come complete with an 800 foot radius, spherical faraday cage"""

To be fair, most of the sort of people that can't be bothered to understand electromagnetic waves tend to think purely in 2 dimensions, since that's about how many they can walk around in. So a 800 foot radius cylinder, roughly the same height as the mast, would probably work just fine for them.

[Anonymous Coward]

Smoking doesn't cause cancer

Remember the good old days of all the studies sponsored by ciggie manufacturers which said there was no link between smoking and cancer. Even when everyone knew it was true they still has their research saying no link.

Research looks a little different now......

'Smoking causes nine in ten cases of lung cancer. Lung cancer has one of the lowest survival rates of all cancers, and is the most common cause of cancer death in the UK. The good news is that most of these deaths are preventable, by giving up smoking in time.......'

My point is research can say anything you want it to. Will the research all you commentards are pinning you hopes on now be disproven in 30 years time? Who's to say but my ear gets hot if I use my mobile for too long. What would it be like to have mast parked at your bedroom window for 30 years. Nobody knows because the technology hasn't be around all that long. Why risk it when I can pick up my home and use that?

[Chris Holt]

Double standards no doubt

You just know they will be the first ones to complain that they get no reception and that the operators are ignoring them because of the complaints that they have made previously.

That the operators simply cannot win is not their problem it seems

[wim]

good luck ...

calling an ambulance when you need one.

[Aaron Em]

"Someone who doesn't have children"

No, just someone poor.

[Paul 25]

Also...

I say the phone companies should just give up and shut down all their antennas in the area.

That would teach the busybody cretins.

[Richard IV]

The phone companies clearly aren't thinking big enough...

Surrounding Long Island, there are 24 giant towers that can emit powerful, focused short wavelength radiation with a range of many miles. As everyone knows, shorter wavelengths do more damage to cells - eg X-Rays and Gamma rays. Yet these towers are accepted, nay welcomed, and often have a positive effect on property values!

Look at this monster: http://www.panoramio.com/photo/30944048

[m45h3d]

The title is required, and must contain letters and/or digits.

I see your point but without the 'breeders' you wouldn't be here either.

[Keith T]

Also true that without cattle, pigs and chickens I wouldn't be here

We all have our part to play in this world, just for some that part doesn't include heavy thinking, community mindedness, or altruistic behaviour.

[Chris 211]

@m45h3d

No I had 'Parents' who could afford to have me and my brother. 2 baby's which is fair and not excessive like 3,4,5 etc.. Arnt I lucky, sadly plenty of children are born into poor, uneducated, over populated slums.

A 'breeder' (slang usage) is someone who pumps out excessive baby's without the ability to pay for them would then sit at home all day expecting hand outs. I feel sorry for the children.

[Jamie Kitson]

Creepy Diseases!

http://www.dontcellout.com/uploads/4/0/1/1/4011544/739931_orig.jpg

[Miek]

Idiots

What a bunch of ignorant lunatics.

[tangerine Sedge]

Bah!

Bah! Let all the operators remove all coverage for the town. 2 weeks of no coverage and they'll be begging for masts...

[Anonymous Coward]

Look at their wee faces!

"OK, so if we could get all you kids looking sad...that's great...hold that pose, oh wait, someone get me some bunnies"!

[TimeMaster T]

Uh ...

Dude. There guinea pigs.

[Diamandi Lucas]

Attack of The Killer Mutant Rabbits

They only look like guinea pigs. They are really mutated rabbits caused by the radiation from the phone towers.

[Number6]

From the Phone

The radiation from the tower is probably less than that received from a phone, and a phone that is further from a tower is going to be radiating at higher power right next to the brain. As such, one could argue that it is in the best interests of children to have the phone mast on top of the school with good receive coverage around its base, so that anyone using a phone in or near the school buildings will get a lower intensity of radiation.

As for the residents of Hampshire, Lon Gisland (that's how the locals pronounce it, anyway), it would serve them right if the telcos removes all masts from their area and adjusted the coverage of the surrounding ones to make it a black hole.

[Richard Wharram]

Masts are the least of anyone's worries

Think of the pipes !!! (and children obv.)

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opinion/2010/0915/1224278896060.html

[Cameron Colley]

Its a shame that they're not likley to succeed.

It would be rather funny to watch house prices drop when people realise there is no cell phone coverage in the area leading to poor, and no doubt undesirable, people moving in. Heck, there could even be more crime on the streets with nobody able to phone except from their houses.

OK I know that it is possible to live a perfectly good life without cell phones at all, but I somehow doubt that removing all the masts would result in hapiness.

[F111F]

Compare the rates?

Anybody want to compare crime rates pre cell-phone and current? I don't think cell phone coverage has any bearing whatsoever on crime rates, but that's just my opinion.

And since you brought it up, maybe it won't be happiness, but more studying and better grades that results from reduced cell phone coverage. Would've saved me a bundle just on not paying for text messages, let alone the time/frustration nagging the kids to stop the texting and dive into their schoolbooks.

[Evil Auditor]

Yes, but...

...is it the mobile phones that made their ears grow?

[Loyal Commenter]

Ceci n'est pas une title

I guess the mobile phone companies will just make huge profits by selling picocells to those people who actually want coverage in their own homes.

I wonder what these people will do when the value of their homes falls in comparison to those in the next town, because they live in a recpetion black-spot? I can't imagine it'll be particularly great for local businesses either...

Never let reality get in the way of ill-informed public hysteria, eh?

[Mike Powers]

Ooh, good idea!

That's a wonderful grinchy idea, right there--secretly bankroll the "anti-tower" wackos, and then once they manage to make cell phones illegal you blitz the area with picocell marketing...

[Mr Young]

No children within 1500ft?

This mast sounds ideal for living! Is it waterproof? Does it have central heating?

[Anonymous Coward]

Tall tales^W towers

> The American town of Hampshire, Long Island, has decreed that phone masts can't be placed within 1500 feet of children, making ...

... the towers very tall indeed.

[Bill Gould]

Also remove

Land line coverage. Seriously. Let this little burb of luddites fade into obscurity when nobody opens a business there or choses to live there once they're of an age to leave.

[Paul 37]

Fortunately....

...I've just invented this brand new mobile phone that runs purely on happy thoughts and moonbeams.

Given the sound judgement and common sense exhibited by the good people of Long Island I'm sure I'll have no problem flogging them a few hundred handsets.

[Rogerborg]

Look on this as an opportunity

If we point out that satellites are using SCIENCE! to penetrate their children's soft, defenceless skulls with gay pornography and Keith Olbermann, 24/7, I bet we could get them to wear Aluminium Foil Deflector Beanies.

[pj3090]

One down, one to go

Now that they have defeated cell phone masts, they need to take out the sun. That thing emits an *obscene* amount of radiation.

[Evil Genius]

Nature

Never mind that pesky background radiation eh?

Big bang my Uranus.

[Nebulo]

Well, really!

All these people need do is to make themselves a few "Tower Busters" ( e.g., http://www.whale.to/b/tb3.html) and rely on good ol' Reichian technology to solve the problem.

Simplez.

[visserman]

Reply: Well, really!

Are these people for real? ROLF

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Tower Busters.

Actually it's a good thing that there are some people believe this stuff..

In every population there are a range of levels, of beliefs, IQ, height etc

We really do need people at the bottom end of the "bell curve", so that the rest of us can get on with some degree of "normality".

[Anonymous Coward]

@Nebulo

Priceless, is it just me or did you also hear the sound of a Cuckoo calling while you were looking at that site?

[Gilbert Wham]

aaaah, towerbusters

God, those people are hilarious. It's entertaining to point out to them that it's not very green to be burying chunks of plastic in the ground, mind.

[JoeTheAnnoying]

Next step: Outlaw vaccination!

How much do you want to bet that this same moms' group next tries to get vaccination outlawed in their town, 'cause we all know it causes Autism.

...then comes CO2, or alcohol...

...then life itself becomes outlawed...

Here comes Judge Death!

[Anonymous Coward]

Right, so.....

....they want the masts placed at least 1500 feet away, despite the fact that they say that they "emit radiation 800 feet in every direction".

Presumably their children aren't taught maths in school either. Oh, sorry, I meant math...

[LinkOfHyrule]

MILTHY

MILTHs'

That is all!

[jonfr]

About those transmissions...

Given that in the U.S they use GSM850/1900 (3G1700/2100/1900/850) there is no way that the cell mast have any health effects what so ever. The transmission power is also quite small, just 10 to 50W at maximum.

Given those facts in mind. I say that in confidence that this peoples are idiots. The mobile companies should do this people a favor and remove all the mobile masts in 2km range or more.

[nick jordan]

mentalists

I particularly like this comment from the site: "Did you know that in Bayville, Long Island, there is a Water Tower near the elementary school with multiple cell antennas on it? There is a lawsuit to have them removed. 30% of the staff and children are sick. Many have CANCER and 3 children have died."

[Kubla Cant]

Arithmetic?

We have it on the best technical authority that the masts "emit radiation 800 feet in every direction". So why the 1500 ft restriction? What happens in the intervening 700 ft?

(Yes, I realise that's not how radiation works, but Moms know best, don't they?)

[SteveK]

Going round in circles

Couldn't other people in the town use the same argument and say that the lack of a mobile signal is having a detrimental effect on the property values?

I'm sure it would be easy to find a number of cases where a sale falls through when you point out that the prospective purchaser won't be able to receive calls.

On the subject of phone masts 'provably' causing a variety of symptoms, wasn't there a case in the last year or so that got thrown out because, while the residents had a raft of documented evidence of how they'd suffered various illnesses and ill effects since a transmitter went up, the company operating it was able to counter with evidence that it wasn't turned on and therefore could not be responsible?

Ah, this is the one: http://mybroadband.co.za/news/Wireless/11099.html (thought I'd seen it on here, but can't find anything from searching...)

Steve.

[Keith T]

Horrible selfish goofs

I don't doubt that 90% of these women own cell phones.

They just want the infrastructure put elsewhere, to depress someone else's property values for their own convenience.

[Anonymous Coward]

the difference there is...

The US networks tend to put up discreet 500 foot+ masts covering much larger areas with higher outputs, thereby nuking the locals to a much higher level.

The thermal effects regs are worthless in regard to pulse modulated microwave transmissions as they are only applicable to heavy industrial plastic molding machines.

(the users of which tended to use unconnected fluorescent tubes to indicate that the equipment is running)

that is scarey!!! Even the HSE people freaked out about that at the time!

The likes of GSK and AZ and other Bio-Med research companies use pulse modulated microwave signal generators to splice DNA up in Bio-Labs around the world.

If you could ever get into one of those sites you would see the long posters on the hallways of the Bio-Labs where they give fairly detailed descriptions of how they use modulated Microwave Radiation to do the Gene Splicing and warnings about all staff must switch off mobile phones and WiFi in the screened buildings and Labs. (as the extra signals play havok with the sensitive experiments by causing splicing in the wrong places.)

You will also find that the sites are pretty much deadzones for mobile phone use anyway, which does tend to piss off Babcock and co, (who are desperate to irradiate everyone and everything on this planet.)

By the time the politicians wake up and realise they have been taken for a ride by all the vested interests and that WE ARE ALL seriously damaged by this tech' it will be too late!

Nice Planet, we'll take it, oh and we'll get the stupid inhabitants to build the ultimate solution to our problem of removal for us, by making everyone one of them addicted to the portable WMD.

[Anonymous Coward]

As a researcher in the biomedical field...

... I call total bollocks on your gene splicing story. We do use heat to denature DNA, if that's what you mean. But we use regular resistive heating for that, not microwaves, so YOUR STOVE IS GIVING YOU CANCER!

We work a lot with Bayer and GSK these days, and if they are using "Microwave Radiation" to do the "Gene Splicing" they're keeping it secret. But I doubt it, because guess what, WE do most of their biology for them as their local sites are filled with chemists, not biologists.

I suspect someone with knowledge of plastic molding machines would do away with the first part of your post, too.

[lpopman]

titular anouncement

"I suspect someone with knowledge of plastic molding machines would do away with the first part of your post, too."

Having worked in plastics, as a machine operator, I can categorically state that any moulding equipment I came into contact with all used heated rollers and hot air to form the shape.

I can't say anything about injection moulding though, as I have no experience on that.

[Annwyn]

Did you know...

...that you can light up a fluorescent tube with one of those toy/decorative plasma balls?

[Tinal]

Oh man

Someone should email these women about the radiation emitted from their lightbulbs. Then maybe they'll all live in the dark instead of acting like they do.

RADIATION IS BAD M'KAY!

[Geoff Campbell]

Sounds to me....

....like they're living in the dark already.

GJC

[JMB]

Moms stand firm against antenna madness

People just don't under the Square Law and cannot understand that 0.5 watt mobile transmitter held against the head is more dangerous than a 100 watt one half a mile away.

I usually try to explain by comparing a small 0.5 watt torch bulb held right in front of the eye and a 100 watt lamp outside a house down the road.

[Martin Usher]

Ban streetlights....

Pesky radiation emitters....they're everywhere....

[rlitman]

This isn't as bad as it looks

First off, its the town of Hempstead.

But, back to the point, these insane NIMBY's have been at this for over a decade. They've successfully stopped numerous cell tower projects in the village of Merrick, and I for one think its great! Why? Because I live in the village of Bellmore. It is the neighboring village, and the cell companies that want to provide coverage in Merrick have put their towers up here instead. Cell coverage in Merrick is fair at best, but I get GREAT signal!

[Ferret]

On the positive side...

I imagine that driver and pedestrian safety on local streets in the are will increase by orders of magnitude once the cell sites are shut down. That is considering that these very same moms who use their lifestyle-accessory-only children as a lever to effect world change will be spending much more time, while at the helm of their gargantuan sport-utility-crossover-vehicles. actually paying attention to their driving instead of texting or blabbering on their phones.

[duncan campbell]

Will that be Agent White with your Cheeri-os?

"Consistent evidence is found between childhood leukemia and exposure to extremely low frequency(ELF) magnetic fields".

Yup. Mostly it's the defoliants they spray on the power lines ROW.

And if you stand out in the Sun too long you'll die of sunburn *before*

the melanoma sets in.

Fubar

[Michael C]

query

How does restricting placement of a cell toper to not closer than 1500 feet of a school or church help HOME values?

more over, how does placement of a tower anywhere it can't be SEEN from a home effect home values? Put one more than a few hundred feet from a house, and the treelines alone should block sight.

I see this going over really bad for the local town board, massive legal fees, thus increasing local taxes dramatically to cover legal costs, or reducing local services, thus plumeting home values compared to nearby towns who allow such towers with little restriction.

[Henry Wertz 1]

"Phone radiation" is crap

"Is always gainst Wifi or Mobile Phone radiation groups?"

Because it's a load of crap

" Why so pro technology when there is mounting evidence that these transmitters can...

disturb sleep

lead to hormonal imablances

some people even get rashes after these masts are installed?"

This has been shown to be crap. There've been tests where people who claim to be RF sensitive are taken to a lab, told to let them know when they feel discomfort, and plop them in a room with a low power radio transmitter with an LED on it -- the LED and transmitter can be turned on and off independently. When the LED comes on they complained. When the actual transmitter comes on, no problem at all.

There was a recent case where a ham radio operator put up a tower, people came out of the woodwork to complain about sleep problems, etc. etc. etc. The ham pointed out he had not actually hooked up ANY transmitters to the antenna yet, it was just an inert metal lump. They could not actually tell when his transmitter was running. Yep, they had problems when the MAST was installed, even though there was nothing hooked up to it!

The biggest one is the people that get problems when there's a cell SITE nearby, but will happily talk on a cell PHONE. Holding the phone up exposes them to FAR more RF than they would get from the cell site. The sites have a fence around them keeping anyone from getting close enough to get excessive RF.

[slippy]

You have to remember

I think most of the danger of mobile phones come from all the idiots who drive around in their *massive* 4x4 cars and trucks, while merrily talking on the phone and paying no attention to the world around them. I was happy when this got banned in the UK, now I have to regularly avoid Americans who want to plant the side of their vehicle into my face.

No wonder the poor kids are sad, imagine how much fun they get to have... just woodern blocks and sand for you Timmy..

[Anonymous Coward]

Hypocrites, All of You

Paris, for all of you hyporcrites who love to tout your independence and worldly ways, yet castigate those who think differently than you. You revel in your ability to choose. Choice of operating systems, choice of programs, choice of hardware, etc., are all-important to you. But, how dare anyone have a different opinion on technology? Shame on all of you. This town's decision is not harming you, has no effect on your life, and has no bearing on your future, so let them be and live their lives the way they want to. You want everything your way, "open architecture", "open systems" etc., but when one small community wants it their way, it's all ridicule and blatant hypocrisy.

[Anonymous Coward]

tw&t

What are you talking about you fecking idiot?

The vast majority of responses on here are saying turn the transmitters off, and leave these luddites to their own end.

There is no 'difference of opinion' here. These idiot women are wrong, simple as.

[Anonymous Coward]

Well then...

Enjoy having no cell phone coverage, luddite.

[Number6]

Wrong Place?

"The American town of Hampshire, Long Island, has decreed that phone masts can't be placed within 1500 feet of children, making coverage nearly impossible."

Are you getting your Hampshires confused with your Hempsteads?

[peter 45]

No children within 1500 ft......i have an idea

Please Mr Mobile Phone Company. Come and put a mast on my front lawn. Anything to get rid of screaming little brats. I might get a decent signal as a bonus

[FuzzyTheBear]

There ARE dangers.But not to those you think.

About 20 years back here in Canuckia there has been a number of incidents with microwaves that at least ,shows you should be carefull with high power RF at microwave frequencies. The high power high performance microwave antennas are dish types with a radome and a tarp in the front.

While changing such a tarp with the transmitter on a colleague had after quite a bit of exposition started to feel awfull pain in his arm .At the hospital they diagnosed it was radiation burn. Indeed the higher the frequency the higher the risk.We were routinely manipulating 900mhz band paging antennas with bare hands and never felt bad .So there's 2 things they should keep in mind before making declarations. A ) extreme short range. if the antenna is on your head at a few hundred watts e.r.p. and frequencies above 2 gigs i say , well wear a tin hat .. but apart from that if you're any kind of distance from an antenna at cell phone frequencies ( even low gig ) i cannot conceive that you will feel anything at all. We were putting these suckers up and work around them live day in day out and never even had a headache.

Perhaps these people should be introduced to the technology formally and demonstrations done in places so people will stop this ridiculous display of ignorance.

Cell towers in the USA in certain places are hidden as false trees .. maybe that's what they need .

Just get a beer

[Anonymous Coward]

Careful...

Us Brummies (and most of the Midlands) use the word 'Mom' too. I didn't even believe 'Mum' was a real word until I was in my 30s. Still cannot bring myself to say 'Mum' - sounds to posh (or too much like a deodorant).

[John Savard]

Priorities

If people want to restrict cell phone towers, I don't see why the federal government should get in the way. The local communities can decide where they will accept those towers, and either those communities will have cell phone service that works afterward, or they won't. Who else is inconvenienced?

In fact, if residential neighborhoods don't have cell phone coverage, well, people at home can use their ordinary phones, so this just keeps the roads safer by preventing people from calling on cell phones while driving.

Instead, the federal government ought to be coming down hard on people who try to keep nuclear power plants out of their communities, because stopping global warming is a legitimate national priority.

[Astarte]

Think about the children.

I assume there will be a similar law prohibiting children entering any area within 1500 ft of the antennæ.

[Henry Wertz 1]

I ridicule people with stupid "opinions"

"But, how dare anyone have a different opinion on technology?"..."but when one small community wants it their way, it's all ridicule and blatant hypocrisy"

People who have stupid "opinions" can and do deserve ridicule, I would also ridicule flat earthers, people who think the sun goes around the earth, and so on. As for the rest of your post, I am not trying to force my choices onto others, while these people are -- if nobody in the town had cell phones, the cell cos would not be trying to build service there. They are the ones being hypocritical.

Also, there is actually a large area in West Virginia that is RF-free, or as close as physically possible -- it has a radio telescope, and a "secret" radio reception site (well it's existence isn't secret, but who knows what if anything it's used for...), boxed in by mountains that block out most radio interference from outside this large area so they can have a clean shot at the radio telescope getting a clean view of astronomical objects, and the other site can have a clean shot at spying on satellites or whatever. If these people were serious they would move there. With no TV stations, no radio stations, no cable (the cable would leak too much RF), no garage door openers (they use radio), no cell phone service.. well, there aren't that many that live there.

[James Woods]

I agree with the mums

Im not real hip to how cellphones work but I live in an area that is serviced by Verizon, Sprint, and At&t with verizon winning the coverage war.

They win that war by locking in areas and not allowing competition to come in.

The moms are in large unhappy about the neighborhood antennas and I couldn't agree with them more. If the people don't want something in their town that's what separates America from other countries.

The people here have a voice. If the moms can't win a majority vote in regards to this then they need to get back in the kitchen and respect the wishes of others.

If we allowed corporate america and telcos to make the decisions for us we'd have high tension power lines over our houses because they do not have to live around it.

Just like the political elite pushing wind turbines and at the same time not wanting them anywhere near their homes.

[ElReg!comments!Pierre]

You sound confused

Looks like someone is confusing "majority vote" with "rabid lobbying and scaremongering by a small minority". But I guess you could say that this is indeed what "separates America from other countries".

[Pat 9]

It gets better

besides all of their "knowledge" about this. the contact us page is a form to sign up for their newsletter (and if you do sign up, only did because i really wanted to leave them a msg, if you select text only it still uses html tags just sent as plain text)

and even though they use the website domain to send you the emails all responses are sent to an @aol.com account. these people are "on top of there game" with this one

[Anonymous Coward]

Education, education, education ...

These are the same people who believe in intelligent design over evolution -- and don't make any connection between the TV transmitters pumping out tens -- or hundreds -- of kilowatts (which is OK 'cos "its just TV, right?") and a cell tower putting out a mere ten watts or less.

Microwaves: they're just radio waves. And if they knew anything about the inverse square law they would realise the amount of energy they are receiving is probably less than the thermal shot-noise RF their own bodies are emitting all the time.

Its just sad that this level of ignorance exists.

[Jeffrey Nonken]

Ummmmm

... Let's see. Poor coverage causes poor reception. Poor reception induces your cell phone to boost its signal. This reduces battery life and... Oh!... increases the radiation levels surrounding the cell phone.

I don't know how wide a proximity that affects (that is, other people in the same room) but your kids are going to grow up without parents because you died of cancer before you reached 40. Because that cell phone in your pocket is blasting its signal into your hip at full power. Could be doing interesting things to your potential future children, too. Congratulations.

Why isn't there a tin-foil hat icon? This needs one of those.

[JaitcH]

This reminds me of the old Amateur Radio antenna arguement ...

in the States.

Since transmitters are licenced by the Federal government they are pretty tough to change as the senior government prevails over junior state and town legislation.. I think similar situations can be found in many countries.

[ZenCoder]

I got a plan ...

Redesign the mast's to form a cross, then accuse anyone opposes them of being anti-Christian.

[uninventiveheart]

There's a name for this...

Americans call this "Not in my backyard." There's many causes to champion for these things: prison construction, wastewater treatment facilities, drug users, sex offender halfway houses, cell towers, power transmission poles, etc. Most of these things are based on fear and supposition.

Before someone flies off the handle and boasts "How Dare You!", yes, I live in a state with a sex offender registry that's public information. I agree that sex offenders should live nowhere near schools or areas where kids or women exclusively gather, like schools or abuse shelters. That being said, they gotta live somewhere too.

[Anonymous Coward]

the return of the luddites

...ah, where would human existence be without these anti-technology luddites and FUD spreaders?

the answer? we'd probably be further along the technology track with all kinds of fancy tech fixing human health, welfare, transport etc issues.

instead we get held back by idiots like these

[Charles 9]

And they'd counter...

...that without moderation and due concern, we could easily blindly step off a proverbial cliff. They'll give you lots of examples of supposed miracles that proved later to be devils in disguise: radium glow-in-the-dark displays, DDT, thalidomide, and so on. They probably keep a laundry list of such technological blunders and probably keep a choice few that, had they proceeded, might have caused irreparable or catastrophic harm to the human race, the planet, or both.

[Michael 28]

Havink "simples" solution

... Move school out of town... will ease congestion. Also make area safer.

btw... do the kids look miserable because of the presence of phone masts, or the absence of coverage . Think maybe the latter .. check out the guy in the black t-shirt... evolution has already taken over ....(OOPS ... mentioned the "E" word)

(Ears)

[Maryland, USA]

When those kids apply for college...

...the admissions officer will glance at the kid's address and think, "He's from that town of morons!"

[Anonymous Coward]

I think we had better ....

... all agree not to tell them about the 6 x 10^14 solar neutrinos per square meter per second passing through them, all day, every day.

[Arclight]

Good Science

From their site FAQ page

3. Aren't these antennas proven to be safe?

It is our understanding only that they are not yet proven to be dangerous, which is really not the same thing.

[Tigra 07]

Dumb dumb local women

I wouldn't buy a house where i can't get a mobile phone signal.

I bet these dumb people still own microwaves!