DEAR EDITOR:
I’ve spent a little more than a half-life living in Gilroy
– 23 years, since I was a teenager. In that time, I have only
written one other letter to this newspaper.
DEAR EDITOR:
I’ve spent a little more than a half-life living in Gilroy – 23 years, since I was a teenager. In that time, I have only written one other letter to this newspaper.
A few months ago, with help from my family and friends, I started a campaign to try and develop a sensible and safe strategy for local citizens to be able to have some say about where radiation emitting broadcast transmitters can and should be located in our town.
Today, several hundred other Gilroyans have joined us and signed our petition asking that our City Council enact a new law requiring that all transmitters be located at least 2500 feet from every Gilroy home, school, and fresh drinking water supply.
I have a little bit of experience in the field, I am a radio astronomer and an aviator. I’ve been privileged to have been allowed to learn and study at the world’s largest radio telescope, operated by our country’s National Science Foundation and Cornell University.
Mr. Mark Lyons wrote a very thoughtful letter in this column in December of last year on this same issue.
He pointed out correctly then, that radio is transmitted electromagnetic waves that vibrate at a certain frequency. Mr. Lyons also said that different modulated frequency bandwidths, like AM and FM, produce differing levels of radiation, or heat, when they encounter moisture, like the liquid in our bodies.
Radiated frequency vibrates our molecules and cells so fast that friction builds up. It is how a microwave oven works.
Mr. Lyons also correctly pointed out that heat, or radiation, tends to have the ability, at the molecular, or what we otherwise consider to be the very very smallest levels, to cause chemical separations in such physical constructs as DNA.
Mr. Lyons and I both know this to be true.
But, what he feels sure of, and what I, and most other atomic and radio scientists are not so positive about, is how much radiation, at what proximity, and over how long – be it months or years for example – is too much for a human body to absorb safely?
We all should be able to safely enjoy the benefits of what this technology can bring to our lives. But, with so many new transmitters being constructed in modern 21st Century California life, it seems just prudent and safe to some of us, to consider that we should begin to protect those amongst us that are the most vulnerable to the effects of radiation.
The most vulnerable amongst us are children, whose bodies are still growing. Cells divide much more rapidly in young people whose bodies are growing rapidly. Each cellular division provides another possible opportunity for a radiation induced chemical DNA separation, or mutation, to occur in a child’s body.
These mutations can sometimes lead to mixed up genetic signals being sent that cause cells then dividing, to begin to split too fast. This can form masses of cells, or tumors, and these tumors are what medical doctors and researchers refer to as cancer.
I served just last year as a delegate at the United Nations Summit on Sustainable Development. There, in Johannesburg we learned about a method of locating transmitters, that seems to not only protect kids health, but also save their parents wealth.
The Swiss, the Austrians, the Germans, and now too the Italians are all very concerned by what they call “electrosmog” pollution. To combat it they have come up with a very simple solution. They centralize and require every company’s transmitter to go onto one consolidated transmitter pole, and put it a safe distance from kid’s homes and schools.
Of course, this raises property values on people’s homes. No more ugly transmission towers in neighborhoods, and no need to disclose legally, a nearby source of radiation when a house is sold, to prevent later lawsuits.
This seems like a very simple, safe, and sensible idea.
Christopher M. Coté, Gilroy
Submitted Saturday, Feb. 1 to [email protected]
