Cell Tower Health Effects and Policy Webinar
Are cell towers safe? What does the science say? Why are countries worldwide minimizing cellular radiation to children to protect their health?
Watch a presentation by Environmental Health Trust Executive Director Theodora Scarato to Union County North Carolina Community where cell towers are proposed on school property starting with a 350 foot tower! About 600 families are concerned about the plan as the tower would be directly near an outdoor classroom.
Cell towers have wireless antennas that emit radio frequency (RF) non-ionizing radiation. RF radiation is considered a new form of environmental pollution. Effects from RF documented in scientific research include increased cancer risk, cellular stress, headaches, sleep issues, genetic damage, changes to the reproductive system, memory deficits, and impacts to the nervous system. A recent review entitled “Evidence for a health risk by RF on humans living around mobile phone base stations: From radiofrequency sickness to cancerreviewed the existing scientific literature and found radiofrequency sickness, cancer and changes in biochemical parameters (Balmori 2022).
Note: This webinar replay is edited and some additional material added.
Watch parent testimony at the School Board meeting below.
Download a briefing on cell towers at school here.
Theodora Scarato MSW is Executive Director of Environmental Health Trust (EHT), a scientific think tank that publishes research and educates policymakers on environmental health issues. EHT scientists are among the leading independent voices calling for reducing wireless worldwide.
EHT was lead petitioner in a major lawsuit against the FCC which focused on several issues including the impact of telecommunications networks to wildlife and trees. As a result, the FCC has been ordered to address the science indicating impacts to the environment. Scarato’s policy research was featured in the Santa Fe New Mexican’s Report says wireless radiation may harm wildlife by Scott Wyland. Read EHT’s scientific letter to the National Parks and their website focused on biodiversity and telecommunications infrastructure.
Scarato directs EHT educational programs, publishes research and coordinates scientific conferences and programs in the US and internationally alongside EHT’s Senior Science Advisors. Scarato has co-authored several articles on electromagnetic field policy and is a lead policy analyst and researcher for the EHT database on international actions– the most comprehensive collection of information on policy actions on cell phones and wireless.
- In 2022 a Chapter she co-wrote in the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy Environments Nursing 2nd Edition textbook was published- Unit III: A NEW FORM OF ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION: WIRELESS AND NON-IONIZING ELECTROMAGNETIC FIELDS.
- In 2023 she was co-author to Wireless technologies, non-ionizing electromagnetic fields and children: Identifying and reducing health risks published in Current Problems in Pediatric and Adolescent Health Care.
- She has presented at several US and international conferences on environmental health including the 2020 Tel Aviv Expert Forum, the Michigan State Briefing on 5G, the 2018 “The Dramatic Changes on the Planet and the Hellenic Roots of Ecological Ethics” held at the University of Patras, Greece, the Hebrew University Medical School Expert Forum on Wireless and the Health in Buildings Roundtable Conferenceheld at the National Institutes of Health.
- Scarato was co-author on the comprehensive review paper Building science and radiofrequency radiation: What makes smart and healthy buildings published in Building And Environment after the conference at the National Institute of Health conference. Scarato has presented at both the 2019 and 2021 Medical Conferences on Electromagnetic Fields.
