No Marinwood Park Cell Tower

The Marinwood Community Services District board is considering a proposal to place a 20- to 40-foot cell phone tower/antenna at the Marinwood Community Center. This is despite warnings from experts on potential health risks to children and the medically fragile and statements by many scientists and medical doctors that long-term biological health effects due to electromagnetic radiation, while not fully established, are cause for concern and should be avoided based on the internationally recognized Precautionary Principle (In this case: Not to place cell towers within the hot zone of 1,500 feet of a school, playground, day care center, or hospital.)

WHY YOU SHOULD CARE

Unknown Health Risks:
1. The mounting evidence of harmful biological effects from phone towers shows that a positive assertion of safety with respect to chronic exposure to low intensity levels cannot be made by the wireless industry. Scientists warn that children, pregnant women, seniors and persons who have damaged immune systems are at greatest risk.

·         The industry says the antennas will transmit emissions within the FCC's guidelines, but these guidelines only protect human health from heating of tissue or nerve excitation, not the low-levels effects, which do not involve heating but transmit information that can cause physiological and biochemical changes, such as rapid cellular division, DNA damage, mitochrondrial changes, heat shock protein release, rapid heartbeat, and neurological and behavioral effects, including adverse health symptoms known as electrical hypersensitivity. Chronic exposure could result in neurological disease such as Parkinson's and cancers. The threshold for what is considered a 'safe' exposure has not yet been established biologically and, as this technology is new, precaution is advised, especially near vulnerable areas such as homes, schools, and community centers. 

·         There is a preschool in the community center, Marin Waldorf School is just down the road, and the swimming pool, playground, and park is our community epicenter.

2. People with lifesaving implanted devices, such as pacemakers or defibrillators, can be harmed if in close proximity to cell towers, as these RF signals can interfere with and reset their devices.

Property Values May Decrease
1. Cell phone towers are unsightly and have been documented as having reduced property values in some neighborhoods where they have been sited.

2. It is extremely difficult to regain land rights once a mandatory long-term lease is in place, even if adverse effects are evident and there is no course of remuneration if problems arise later. And if it's a co-location tower, once it's approved, it and whatever goes on it will be regulated by the CA State PUC; local government loses control over notice and review of any technology changes in the future according to AB 1629, CA state Legislature in 2006.

Aesthetics and Neighborhood Character May Be Affected Even if the tower is disguised as a flag pole or tree, we will know it is there and will avoid it. The presence of antennas in our gathering center could adversely affect community living.  

Cellular Antennas Are Being Banned Around the World
1. The European Parliament passed a major EMF resolution in April 2009 calling for a full investigation into potential health effects due to antennas, cell phones, power lines, and other EMF sources and for member nations to adopt lower exposure standards. The French National government has an investigation underway. Many communities, in UK,  Europe, Latin America and in the US  (the LA Unified School District, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, the cities of Glendale, California and Portland, Oregon,  and the International Association of Fire Fighters), are expressing health concerns and recommend banning antennas in vulnerable areas and heeding the internationally recognized Precautionary Principle, which prohibits towers from being erected around schools, hospitals, and highly populated residential areas.

In this case the reward is just not worth the risk.