By reporter Steven Smalley
Notices on doors started showing up in the vicinity of Dravus Street and Magnolia Boulevard from the Seattle Department of Construction and Inspections regarding installation of ?communication utilities? on Seattle City Light poles. One neighbor in particular understood the implications. He was not happy.
? ?What?s happening in our neighborhood is Crown Castle, a company that builds networks on behalf of cellular operators, has proposed a network of nine cell sites that run along the edge of Magnolia Boulevard,? says Alistair Fulton, a homeowner who received a notice.
Because of concerns over children?s health, aesthetics, and property values, he and some of his neighbors want the project stopped. He recently posted notices on light poles alerting residents to the City?s plans.
?All of my neighbors in the area are equally as livid,? he says. ?This notice ended up on our door and I looked at it and said, ?What the hell is happening???
For years Fulton was employed in the cellular industry and is familiar with these issues.
?I think that there?s a significant risk. At the very least, there is a very big question as to how safe these things are. In my opinion, in twenty years we may look back and think about cell phones and cancer the way we think about cigarettes and cancer,? he says.
Other neighbors are speaking out as well.
?I have kids, and they?re in the horizontal plane with this tower. It?s across the street basically from the corner of our backyard. The kids play back there. You want to protect your kids,? says Luke Weber, who also received a notice on his door. ?As a homeowner I feel we should be able to decide whether one of these things is put across the street from us. We?re considering legal action against the city because of the decrease in our home?s value.?
Moms in the area are concerned too.
?I?m really worried about the impact this will have on my kids. This pole is on the same level as my kid?s room,? says Maria Facioni, a homeowner affected by the City?s planning. ?The laws are not on the side of the citizens. They?re on the side of the companies.?
Notices attached to similar installations warn of an ?Exclusion Zone? where anyone closer than 8-feet may exceed FCC mandated public exposure limits.
?The cell site in question is forty-five feet from my child?s bedroom. It?s also twelve feet away from my neighbors,? Fulton explains. ?Electromagnetic Frequency Radiation [EMF] is exactly the same as a [home] microwave. It agitates your cells and heats your cells. That leads to a variety of cancers, particularly Glioma and Leukemia. There are some studies ? but not enough into what health risks might exist ? some studies in other parts of the world have suggested there may be as much as a ten-times increase over ten years for those who live within 1,200 feet of cell sites. Not enough research has been done on this, particularly because the FCC doesn?t require it.?
There are four separate issues troubling Fulton and his neighbors if these cell sites are installed.
?The first is, we live in a neighborhood that in 1973 paid Seattle City Light to put the utilities underground,? he says. ?Part of the reason was for aesthetics, and part of the reason was for safety. This development flies in the face of that.??Concern number two: If we get a storm, these things are going to topple over and hit my neighbor?s house.
Concern number three: Significant studies point to the risk of cancer and other health impacts.
Concern number four: The impact these things will have on property values. Studies in Europe show that there?s a 20% effect on the value of my property in regards to these antennae. If this was here when I bought this house, I would not have bought this house.?
These first few cell sites are only the beginning, according to Fulton.
?They?re talking about building another forty to sixty of these antennae in the Magnolia area in the course of the next year or so,? he says. ?In Queen Anne for example, I understand that they have installed more than one hundred of these antennae in the last few months, according to what Crown Castle said to me.?
?????Fulton asks concerned neighbors to act quickly. The City’s comment period ends February 15. If you are effected by these proposals he suggests you email prc@seattle.gov or douglas.haberman@seattle.gov to express concerns, or click here to contact the mayor. To sign a local petition click here.
?We should not be installing this equipment so close to people?s houses when we know there may be a risk, at least not before more research is done,? Fulton says. ?There?s no way in hell we?re going down without a fight.?