Cell Phones and Towers

Many people are worried about cell phones, and the towers used to broadcast and receive signals from them. There are many concerns about serious damage they may be causing to the environment and to human health. Unfortunately there is a great deal of misinformation in this area, and many of the concerns are unwarranted. There are some legitimate concerns, but these are often lost among claims with no scientific basis.

A recent issue, which has been promoted by the media, is that cell phones can cause brain cancer or other forms of cancer if they are used too frequently. This a widely held belief today, yet there is no evidence for it. No scientific studies have shown any link between cell phone use and cancer, nor has there been any credible hypothesis proposed that could explain how the technology could cause such effects. One study was done in Denmark over a 13 year period, and showed no increase of cancer of any type in cell phone users.

In the UK, there's a similar belief. In that case, the suggestion is that cell phone towers (which they call masts) are a cause of cancer and other illness, not the phones themselves. The World Health Organization (WHO) after reviewing many scientific studies, concludes that cell phones and towers have not been shown to have any impacts on health. They also make the point that exposure to RF fields (radio waves) is 1000 times higher from cell phones than from the broadcasting towers, obviously because they are closer to the individual.

Of course, the use of cell phones while driving (or operating trains, subways, or airplanes) has been shown to result in more accidents. This is not caused by the phones themselves, obviously, but by human distraction, and many other activities (reading, playing video games, shaving) can also be distracting to drivers and cause more accidents. For this reasons the use of cell phones while driving has been banned in many countries.

Cell towers do have negative environmental effects, however. This isn't limited to just towers used for cell networks, but television, radio and other towers have the same problems. Many studies have shown that communications towers are responsible for the death of millions of birds, including many endangered species. The US Fish and Wildlife Service (PDF) says that as many as 50 million birds are killed annually. Some types of towers, such as those with guy wires and with lights are much more damaging than others, and not surprisingly, taller towers are worse than shorter ones.

The USFWS mentions that communications towers are growing at an exponential rate, so the threat to birds is growing rapidly. They provide several recommendations for reducing this, including removing lights were possible, building free-standing structures that don't require the use of guy wires, and using collocation (putting many towers at the same site). They also suggest environmental assessments be done before construction and that in the case of an area where there is a significant bird population, or that is used by migrating birds, an alternative site should be used instead. They also suggest that old towers no longer in use should be removed as quickly as possible.

Another significant problem with cell phones (and the infrastructure to support them) is that they consume a massive amount of resources and energy. According to one estimate Americans throw out an average of 426,000 cell phones every day. That's over 150 million a year. In the entire world, this number could be close to a billion. This is waste on a scale hard to imagine. Many of these phones contain toxic substances and many of them are shipped to the third world, causing significant environmental damage and pollution which impacts local populations.

We need to ask if this is really the best way to be using our resources while faced with the threat of global warming and environmental destruction. The carbon emissions generated by the continual manufacture of billions of cell phones is enormous. People replace their phones about every 18 months on average. Cell networks are continually being upgraded to provide new services, and faster data rates.

At the very least, we need to consider slowing this down dramatically. We have a working communications infrastructure, and we have billions of working cell phones. There is no need to continually rebuild this every few years. We don't need to take this service away from anyone, but this level of consumption just isn't sustainable. We desperately need to apply the brakes.

Cell phones and towers have not been shown to have any direct health impact on humans. Claims to the contrary are based on pseudo-science and have not been demonstrated by scientific studies. Nevertheless, towers, and the cell phone industry itself, are contributing significantly to global warming and other environment damage, which does impact human health indirectly, and the health of the planet. We must have limits.