Professional Documents
Culture Documents
by ADM
A proposed cellular telephone transmission station has some Beacon Hill residents concerned
about visual clutter, health issues, and a bad precedent, but most locals feel no harm will be
done if Cellular One installs its antennae on top of the Brimmer Street Garage.
No one opposed the plan at a recent meeting of the Beacon Hill Civic Association’s Zoning
and Licensing Committee, although the BHCA has since received three phone calls objecting
to the installation. Hill resident Joan Higgins has been the plan’s most vocal opponent.
Higgins has plead her case in letters to the Beacon Hill Times and the Boston Globe, and has
notified the BHCA of her feelings.
The BHCA’s Zoning and Licensing Committee voted not to oppose Cellular One’s application
for a conditional use permit to install the antennae, but Higgins believes commercial
enterprises should not be granted such permits in residential neighborhoods. “They have no
right to be here,” Higgins said. She also worries that this case will set a precedent that will
lead to similar installations in residential areas all over the city. Furthermore, Higgins is
concerned that the installation may pose health risks to the garage’s abutters. “The risk has
not been objectively assessed. So why put it in a residential area?” Higgins said.
Cellular One’s representative Jim Valeriani has responded to Higgins’ concerns, but has been
unsuccessful in his attempts to contact Higgins and the other opponents directly. Valeriani
says that Boston zoning law does allow permits to be issued to meet the needs of cellular
customers. No variance to a regulation is required. In response to concerns about the
antennae having a negative impact on the health of neighbors, Valeriani says that the
proposed installation is in full compliance with Massachusetts public health statutes that
dictate acceptable levels of electromagnetic energy.
In fact, David Maxson, an engineer hired by Cellular One to test the company’s transmission
equipment, says the installation emits a level of energy which is “hundreds of thousands of
times lower” than the state’s guidelines. Maxson says that “background energy” such as
sunlight and moonlight is many times greater than the energy from the proposed installation.
Maxson measures the energy in terms of “power density,” or the amount of milliwatts emitted per
square centimeter. Average sunlight rates at 100 mw/sq cm, whereas the waves from the Cellular One
installation measure a mere .6 mw/sq cm. By contrast, a microwave oven concentrates energy at
approximately 60,000 mw/sq cm, about 100,000 times more energy than the antennae emits.
Certain highenergy electromagnetic fields can interfere with molecular structures, such as
DNA, and break it apart, possibly causing mayhem in a human body. The emissions coming
from Cellular One’s installations are thousands of times weaker than such fields.
Although scientific experiments so far have been inconclusive as to whether lowpower
electromagnetic fields adversely affect human health, most scientists and engineers believe
installations such as Cellular One’s pose no such threat. Dr. Om Gandhi, a professor of
electrical engineering at the University of Utah and one of the world’s leading experts on radio
waves and electromagnetic fields says that if Cellular One’s proposed installation has been
tested and falls within the state’s guidelines, then residents should feel safe. When told that
the power density was thousands of times lower than the state’s safety threshold, Gandhi
said, “I think you’ll be fine.”
Maxson also pints out that read waves tend to travel horizontally, so their signal weakens with
increased or vertical differences. Therefore, since most of the residences near the proposed
antennae are not vertically aligned with the antennae, the power density of the signal will be
even lower than the .6 mw/sq cm. Maxson does say, however, that term of exposure must be
considered when determining health risk. Human tissue could survive a short stint in a
microwave oven, but cooking too long would cause cellular damage, just as sunbathing does.
Despite the expert’s assurances that the installation almost definitely poses no risk, a few
residents are still concerned. Valeriani told the BHCA at the meeting that he is eager to meet
with opponents of the plan, and has since reiterated this many times to the BHCA and the
media. He has also sent letters to abutters requesting comment, but has not heard from
anyone outside of the BHCA since the meeting.
Many residents, even those with medical or scientific backgrounds, are more concerned with
the aesthetics of the installation than with the alleged health effects. Cellular One has
proposed painting each of the three antennae to match the brick wall on which they will be
mounted. The Beacon Hill Architectural Commission has reviewed the proposal, and
determined that no action is necessary since the installation would not be visible from a public
way. The antennae are each 33” long and will be placed 3 feet apart. Cables will run from
the antennae into the wall.
Cellular One has received permission to install a similar set of antennae at the corner of
Myrtle and Joy streets, and may consider one more station to serve the North slope of the Hill,
in addition to the installation currently on top of the Massachusetts General Hospital garage.
Originally appeared in the Beacon Hill Times