WiFi dangers

Just read the article in the Bay Guardian titled "Grassroots Internet: Activists Wants to Bring WiFi to Your Neighborhood – for Free," by Lauren Gelman [11/19/03].

While I'm all for locking horns with "big business interests," I was very disappointed that the Bay Guardian would so unequivocally extol WiFi technology without also informing your readers of the potential public health issues associated with this technology. WiFi, similar to cellular antennas, utilizes microwave radiation that may pose certain health and environmental dangers to the general public.

I, along with many of my neighbors, successfully fought the installation of a cellular antenna site to be located in our residential neighborhood a few years back. We are currently in a battle with another cellular company that is trying to install a cellular site in our neighborhood, again. We have been given negative assurance by the "powers that be" that emissions from cellular antennas are safe, but can they guarantee in the long term that there will not be adverse health issues?

Remember when we were told 25-plus years ago that smoking cigarettes posed no health risks!

Albert Hom,
San Francisco

Citizens against WiFi

From reading Lauren Gelman's article "Grassroots Internet: Activists Want to Bring WiFi to Your Neighborhood – for Free," one wouldn't know that for years there has been an incredible amount of concern among scientists and neighborhood and grassroots activists about the possible health effects of microwave and electromagnetic radiation from antennas. Nor would they know that the 1996 Federal Telecommunications Act, in a section written by industry lobbyists, specifically bans consideration of health hazards in siting antennas for cell phone and wireless base stations. There's a reason for that. School districts and municipalities across the country and around the world are either in the process of banning, or have already banned, antenna placement in residential areas (see emrnetwork.org). There is a mini-scandal brewing right here in San Francisco over the glut of antennas (2,400 and counting). In the Inner Richmond, more than 20 of my fellow neighbors and I successfully overturned AT&T's application for more cell phone antennas at Ninth and Geary. Ours was one of dozens of such efforts in San Francisco.

Janice Rothstein,
San Francisco

Is WiFi safe?

After reading Lauren Gelman's article, "Grassroots Internet, S.F. Activists Want to Bring WiFi to Your Neighborhood – for Free," I am again perplexed: how can such a seemingly savvy writer ignore the most basic and essential of topics, safety? The bioeffects of pulsed microwave radiation have long been studied by distinguished scientists who have expressed their doubts about the wisdom of the devil-may-care attitude among those who sell and use this technology. Take for example the comments of W. Ross Adey, M.D., distinguished professor of neurology at Loma Linda University School of Medicine, who has studied the health effects of electromagnetic fields for more than 30 years and who was chair of the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements committee charged with evaluating the potential health effects of electromagnetic fields: "It is not a good thing to proceed toward a world of ubiquitous wireless communication in a totally uncontrolled fashion. The epidemiology suggests that there are health effects that are cumulative over time from exposure to non-ionizing electromagnetic radiation – whether it be 60-hertz power-line fields, today's types of radio and microwave communication, or ultrawide-band technology" – Fortune, Vol. 142, No. 8, Special Issue: The Future of The Internet. How important is it for some to become educated in the intricacies of the Middle East at the unwitting expense of the health of all, both those taking advantage of SFLan and LinkTV and those simply living near an SFLan node?

Mark Longwood,
San Francisco

Culture editor Annalee Newitz responds: Little has been published about the effects of radio waves (microwave or otherwise) in scientific journals, and so this issue is still open to debate. Certainly, safety is a concern, but so is getting children and community members who can't afford Internet connections free access to a medium that provides both education and career resources. I would also point out that human-controlled radio waves have been penetrating our homes and bodies for almost 100 years with no observable effects.

For the record

In "Battle for the Hoods" (12/3/03) we said San Francisco Chronicle reporter Rachel Gordon hadn't responded to a Bay Guardian inquiry about attributing to Gavin Newsom the desire "to let neighborhoods decide what they want on a case-by-case basis." In fact, Gordon did respond by e-mail in a timely fashion. While she admitted the comment could be read as advocating more project review by neighborhoods, something Newsom is trying to diminish, she wrote it to mean that neighborhoods should be able to set unique plans for growth in advance.