How dangerous are cell towers?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Recently, literally at every Moscow intersection, strange poles have appeared, hung with antennas and other communication devices. Muscovites are increasingly complaining of poor health. Correspondents of "MN" tried to figure out whether technology can seriously undermine the health of citizens and why the city authorities ignore people's demands to remove these towers.

When the first tower, hung with transmitting equipment, appeared in the Otradnoye district, local residents were even delighted. Mobile phones in many homes worked very badly, so the authorities' desire to rectify the situation aroused only approval from Muscovites. But less than six months later, the entire area around the metro was literally covered with new towers. The transmitting equipment hung over the playgrounds, one support appeared right next to the entrance to the dairy kitchen, moreover, the attentive townspeople noticed that the signalmen had managed to place their equipment on the roof of the children's clinic. Sometimes the distance between the masts was no more than thirty meters. And people began to complain of headaches, pressure surges, someone started having heart pains.

Last September, residents' discontent escalated into protests. On Sannikov Street, people went outside to prevent workers from hanging their devices on another pole. When it became clear that a fight would soon start between the warring parties, someone called the police and representatives of the council. It turned out that the aliens did not have any contracts for the lease of the pole, or permits.

“Then specialists came and began to measure the radiation. And they did it on a pole, where the unconnected devices were still hanging. Soon we received an official response that no excess of radiation standards was found, says a member of the public council at the Otradnoye district administration. Svetlana Balashova.

Residents of the Tverskoy District also believed for a long time that the mast at the intersection of Lesnaya and Novolesnaya Streets would be removed immediately after experts recorded a dangerous background here. After several complaints to the prefecture and other supervisory authorities, Muscovites received a letter in response.

“It was the standard answer that there was no excess near our tower. Only later it turned out that according to the documents, she was listed in another place. It must have been measured there. Of course, no radiation was found in that place, says a member of the community of residents of Lesnaya Street Larisa Razumovskayaand cites figures that became known as a result of an independent examination carried out by residents of the Tverskoy district. The norms of radio-magnetic radiation were violated several times. That is why the statements that in 2015 out of 366 complaints of Muscovites only one was justified, Muscovites listen with skeptical smiles. And certainly the affected residents do not believe the assurances of officials that the base stations located on the towers account for less than 1 percent of the total background. The rest of the harmful radiation allegedly comes from cell phones, electrical appliances and the Internet.

HOW LAMP POSTS BECAME GOLD

Almost three years ago, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev issued an order to improve the information support of the capital, and communications workers immediately had a new headache. Installing base stations on the rooftops of residential buildings proved to be expensive and difficult. The fact is that the Civil Code prescribes first obtaining permission from residents to place equipment.

“It is very difficult, so a technical decision was made to use the lighting poles, which are on the balance sheet of the State Unitary Enterprise“Mossvet”. As of January of this year, 2,170 poles were installed, said the head of the department for work with cellular operators of the Moscow Department of Information Technologies. Victor Barantsev.

Cellular operators were very pleased with this state of affairs. In order to rent the roof of a residential building, one must not only go through a long procedure of collecting signatures from residents, but also pay decent money - an average of 80 thousand rubles a month. And renting a place on a lamppost will cost 20 thousand. That is why they were occupied by all the recognized "monsters" in the mobile services market. Often more than 30 high-frequency devices hang on one pole.

Coordinator of the protest group from the districts of Nagatino and Saburovo Anton Skuratov spent six months trying to figure out the kitchen of this business.

“After 2013, officials rushed to carry out Medvedev’s order. The IT Department is now collecting data from operators on "holes" in the coverage of their networks. In these places, special organizations make dual-purpose supports, that is, they prepare towers for connecting equipment. Then they are transferred to the balance sheet of the State Unitary Enterprise "Mossvet", which is responsible for all the lampposts of the city. Thus, almost everyone solved their problems. Operators are happy to pay "Mossvet" very small amounts in comparison with the rent of attics of residential buildings. Mossvet is glad that literally every post brings money. The officials are glad that they have complied with one more order of the prime minister. Only we, residents, are not happy, but our opinion, as usual, is not taken into account,”Skuratov reflects. He also doubts the objectivity of the measurements. “A 20-30-watt antenna within a radius of 30 meters cannot fit into the norm. But formally you will be told that everything is in order. Some kind of oncology will appear in five years, and then it will not be up to the norm,”the activist reflects.

Moscow City Duma Deputy Elena Shuvalova assumes that the project involves very high-ranking and interested officials.

“The Moscow government has canceled the agreement with the municipal deputies on the installation of communications. And immediately the builders dug through all of Moscow - a new cable was laid. There is a suspicion that it was intended specifically for dual-purpose supports. This means that people at a very high level are vitally interested in this project, here are their material interests. It was necessary not only to lay the cable, but also to ensure that these works were not coordinated with the public. Not everyone can do that,”Shuvalova says.

RADIATION KILLED COCKROACHES

Doctor-oncologist Anatoly Khaustov from the Troparevo-Nikulino area also participates in the movement against dual-purpose supports. He says that experts know about the effect of electromagnetic radiation on the human body, but this phenomenon has not been fully studied. The simplest violation that a tower that has appeared in the neighborhood can "present" is insomnia and headache. Then vegetative-vascular dystonia, hypertension, cardiosclerosis occur. Some experts suspect that radiation can cause cancer, but so far the connection between base stations and the occurrence of this diagnosis has not been proven.

The safest distance from a radio signal source to a residential building is 200 meters. Moscow officials adhere to a different standard - 65 meters. In practice, this distance usually does not exceed 40 meters. Doctor of Medical Sciences Svetlana Nikitina claims that earlier base stations were placed only on the roofs of high-rise buildings so that apartments did not fall into the main beam zone. “Recently, we see that the antennas have crawled down. They are often located on two-story buildings, just a few meters above the ground. Thus, the radiation is directed towards residential buildings. Once, in such an apartment, we measured indicators. It turned out that they were 50 times higher than the standards,”says Nikitina.

Meanwhile, Muscovites have already noticed that soon after the towers appeared, cockroaches disappeared from the capital's apartments. To meet the once ubiquitous sparrow is already a rarity. Municipal deputy Alexandra Andreeva speaks with horror about the activities of the Department of Culture - officials have installed Wi-Fi in most of the capital's parks. "There won't be a single insect left!" - she is indignant.

They say that a few years ago a resident of the Moscow region forced officials to remove the pole from his cottage. This man managed to convince the judge that the machine violates his constitutional right to a healthy environment. Muscovites have more modest successes - none of them managed to achieve the elimination of the tower with transmitting devices under their windows. City officials respond to all their complaints with standard replies.

BETWEEN

Most of the territory of Russia is densely covered with so-called base stations. In an open field, they look more like red and white towers. But in the city they were located on the roofs of skyscrapers. These stations are capable of picking up a signal from any cell phone within a radius of no more than 35 kilometers.

Experts say that the antennas "shine" where they are directed, so there is no danger for residents of the house on the roof of which they are installed. They "catch" radiation only if the emitters are directed downward. The same principle applies to towers located in an open field or outdoors. In this case, people living in the immediate vicinity of the mast are least at risk. Inhabitants of areas where the "ray" coming from the tower is directed may have a reason to worry. Experts argue that it is precisely the places located a short distance from the base station that need constant monitoring. There, the radiation level may exceed the permissible limits.