May 2016 » Dr. Jonathan L. Kramer on Wireless Siting & Law

With the commencement of the ~~California Utility Pole Authority~~ … ~~Mobilitie~~ … Interstate Transport and Broadband build in the City of Los Angeles, this seems like a good time to give you a tour of what [insert your favorite nom de plume here] is actually building on City of Los Angeles street lights.

In words, it goes like this: From an existing or new Sprint site or Mobilitie somewhere a radio signal is transmitted outwards. Nearby Mobilitie sites pick up the signal with a device called a UE relay (User Equipment Relay). From there the signal is sent to a remote radio unit (“RRU”), which converts the incoming signal from the UE Relay to Sprint frequencies. From the RRU, two coaxial cables connect the RRU to the antenna on Sprint’s frequency, and on to Sprint’s customers. There is also an electrical power distribution box to power the UE Relay and RRU. In the case of the City of Los Angeles, electrical power is tapped off of the street lighting power circuit. Where that’s not an option, Mobilitie may have to install a power company electrical meter somewhere on the light standard, or nearby in a meter pedestal.

Here’s what a newly installed Mobilitie (sorry, Interstate Transport and Broadband) site looks like in Los Angeles, with call-outs to identify what I’ve described above. If you’d like to see more photos of new Mobilitie sites in Los Angeles, visit CellTowerPhotos.com.

Now on to our show…

Pretty, eh? Naw, I don’t think so, either.

Jonathan

Today the National Toxicology Program of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services released a preliminary report on a multi-year study of radio frequency emissions on test rats. The report, available here.

The pre-print abstract says,

The US National Toxicology Program (NTP) has carried out extensive rodent toxicology and carcinogenesis studies of radiofrequency radiation (RFR) at frequencies and modulations used in the US telecommunications industry. This report presents partial findings from these studies. The occurrences of two tumor types in male Harlan Sprague Dawley rats exposed to RFR, malignant gliomas in the brain and schwannomas of the heart, were considered of particular interest, and are the subject of this report. The findings in this report were reviewed by expert peer reviewers selected by the NTP and National Institutes of Health (NIH). These reviews and responses to comments are included as appendices to this report, and revisions to the current document have incorporated and addressed these comments. Supplemental information in the form of 4 additional manuscripts has or will soon be submitted for publication. These manuscripts describe in detail the designs and performance of the RFR exposure system, the dosimetry of RFR exposures in rats and mice, the results to a series of pilot studies establishing the ability of the animals to thermoregulate during RFR exposures, and studies of DNA damage. Capstick M, Kuster N, Kühn S, Berdinas-Torres V, Wilson P, Ladbury J, Koepke G, McCormick D, Gauger J, Melnick R. A radio frequency radiation reverberation chamber exposure system for rodents Yijian G, Capstick M, McCormick D, Gauger J, Horn T, Wilson P, Melnick RL and Kuster N. Life time dosimetric assessment for mice and rats exposed to cell phone radiation Wyde ME, Horn TL, Capstick M, Ladbury J, Koepke G, Wilson P, Stout MD, Kuster N, Melnick R, Bucher JR, and McCormick D. Pilot studies of the National Toxicology Program’s cell phone radiofrequency radiation reverberation chamber exposure system Smith-Roe SL, Wyde ME, Stout MD, Winters J, Hobbs CA, Shepard KG, Green A, Kissling GE, Tice RR, Bucher JR, Witt KL. Evaluation of the genotoxicity of cell phone radiofrequency radiation in male and female rats and mice following subchronic exposure.

While you are considering the linked preliminary report, take into consideration the facts that the report released today is not a final report, and is not peer reviewed. There are also additional papers yet to be published so this first report is not complete. Also interesting is the “Additional Response” by John Bucher, Ph.D. on the last page of this preliminary report.

Jonathan

Month: May 2016

Anatomy of a Mobilitie Site for Sprint

National Toxicology Program RF EME Study-Partial Results