Fears Expressed Over Cell Phone Antennas In Queens

by VICTOR ROSS Over the past two years there had been mounting concern that thousands of fixed cellular phone transmission antennas being mounted along Queens’ 2,443 miles of streets which are emitting harmful radiation.
Digital relay systems had been attached to city traffic light and lamp posts, as well as one parkway sign stanchions, in order to facilitate clearer reception for a new digital phone technology called Personal Communication Service (PCS). Posted 20 feet above the ground, the signal boosters consist of a three-foot antenna and a 230-pound, low-power, high-frequency cellular transmission unit.
Based on the installation fee schedule of the city contract with the cell phone companies, the antenna-posting agreement could generate an estimated $325 million during the 15-year life of the contract.
Public Advocate Mark Green (D), Assemblyman Brian McLaughlin (D-Flushing) and candidate for state senator Toby Stavisky are currently voicing their objections to these installations because of the Federal Communication Commission’s weak monitoring regulations. Queens’ roadway system, they note, could get the lion’s share of the pulsed microwave units, because it makes up more than one-third of New York City’s 6,375 miles of city streets.
The legislators say that FCC rules permit phone companies to "self-certify" that their installations are in compliance with federal radioactivity guidelines. The phone companies, they say, are monitoring their equipments’ microwave radiation output because the city had not set up a formal inspection system.
"Self-inspection is poor inspection," said Stavisky. "In an effort to raise revenue, the city of New York is ignoring the health of its citizens."
Stavisky also pointed out the potential hazards of huge five to ten-ton transmission towers which are being installed on private property, which are not subject to governmental inspection.
Public Advocate Mark Green repeated his opposition to the installation of radioactive devices that are not subject to periodic governmental inspection. "If the city does not think that inspections are warranted," he declared, "at the minimum, it has an obligation to explain why."
In 1997, when the agreement was proposed, the city Health Dept. declared that FCC guidelines . . . "provide compelling arguments that these installations are safe, if done correctly." Assemblyman McLaughlin called for community counsel and notification before any project, contract, of franchise is approved . . . particularly, where any local public health concerns are raised.