More than 40 researchers and faculty members at
Harvard's School of Public Health have signed a
petition urging state officials to block Sprint from
turning on a new enhanced cellular phone network that
opponents say poses a health threat. In the latest
flare up in the debate over the health risks of cell
phones, Concord environmental activist Susan Clarke
has persuaded the Harvard-affiliated scientists to
join her fight against the new Personal
Communications Service network that is to be turned
on by year's end.
The petition, which Clarke plans to present to the
state Public Health Department, cites "the
biological plausibility of negative health
impacts" from the system's pulsed digital waves
and calls for "a full review and determination
of its safety by the scientific community."
Sprint officials and one of their health
consultants from the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology insisted that their system is entirely
safe.
In recent years, a small number of studies have
suggested that cell-phone-type microwave radiation
could cause brain cancer, eye damage, asthma, and
lymphoma in mice.
But numerous other studies have denied any health
risk, except for possible disruption of heart
pacemakers by phones held too close to the chest.
Extensive reviews by the Federal Communications
Commission, Institute of Electrical and Electronic
Engineers, and the National Council for Radiation
protection have concluded that cell phones and PCS
units are safe and that current regulations on their
power levels and emissions are adequate to protect
people.
"There have been literally thousands of
studies to evaluate the whole range of radio
frequency, and there are no health effects that can
be substantiated to argue that radio frequency
[emissions] should be controlled to any greater
degree than they are today," said William Irwin,
an MIT health physicist and consultant to Sprint.
PCS devices are essentially souped-up cellular
phones that use streams of digital information to
transmit sound and information much more clearly and
with greater privacy than standard cell phones. They
operate at 1,900 megahertz, well above the normal 800
megahertz frequency of cell phones.
Sprint and a unit of AT&T won the two
franchises to build Greater Boston PCS systems that
will extend to Providence, Worcester, and parts of
New Hampshire and Maine and compete with Cellular One
and Bell Atlantic Nynex Mobile cell phone systems.
PCS licenses have been bought across the nation, and
service has already been launched in New York,
Washington, and other cities.
Dekkers Davidson, area vice president for Sprint
PCS, said service will start in Greater Boston by the
end of this year. Around New England, it is erecting
about 300 antennas, of which 70 percent - including
all those in the city of Boston - will be on rooftops
or existing structures. About 100 will require new
towers.
One of the Harvard petition signers, Dr.
Constantin Yiannoutsos, said, "I'm not
considering myself an expert" on the question of
cell phones' health risks, but Clarke "showed me
evidence of literature that implied they might be
harmful to people. I'm trying to help in some kind of
dialogue."
Another signer, Dr. Joel Schwartz, said,
"There's a lot of studies that suggest there's
an increased cancer risk" from exposure to
microwaves.
But Davidson said, "We're talking about a
very low-power device" that uses only 0.6 watts
of power, a tiny fraction of what a television,
microwave oven, or hair dryer uses. "We wouldn't
be in business if we thought there were health
issues."
A follow up to the above article, was published on
the Boston Globe on June 17, 1997 by Peter J. Howe.
To briefly quote from that follow-up:
"A top state Department of Public Health
(DPH) official said yesterday it is highly unlikely
the agency will block Sprint Corp. from turning on a
new enhanced mobile telephone network that more than
40 Harvard School of Public Health researchers and
faculty members call a possible health threat. Robert
Hallisey, DPH director of radiation control, said the
agency is eager to receive and review information
cited by the Environmental Health
Advocacy League of Concord. But he said,
"Right now, there's nothing to indicate that
this would create a public health problem that would
lead DPH to block it."
