Towers & siting

Thank you to Health and Human Services for requesting information and public comment on this long-ignored agent of harm. Question 2 – Perspective I am commenting as an individual with a degree in physics and extensive knowledge of electromagnetic fields (EMF) and radio frequency (RF) radiation. Question 3 – Experiences with Potential Adverse Health Effects I started having headaches after using my first mobile phone. During years of careful observation, I noticed similar headaches after being near operating Wi-Fi, smart utility meters, cell antennas, and other wireless infrastructure. Fortunately, where I worked, the networks were hardwired, and I was not required to carry a mobile phone. And, I live far enough away from cell antennas in a wired house. I don’t carry a mobile phone and avoid high RF radiation areas, e.g. sports stadiums. I did not consent to be irradiated so other people can stream video on their mobile phones. Questions 6 and 12 – Existing Scientific Evidence Scientists around the globe have performed literally hundreds of investigations of the adverse effects on human health and the environment. Other commenters to this RFI submitted the reports of many investigations. I attached one article that is particularly insightful. THE PEOPLE SUFFERING FROM RF/EMF RADIATION EXPOSURE DON’T NEED ANOTHER INVESTIGATION OR ASSESSMENT OR RESEARCH. THEY NEED THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT TO ACT TO PROTECT THE HEALTH AND SAFETY OF ITS CITIZENS. Remember, tobacco smoking was considered safe for decades before governments took action. Question 11 – Exposure Assessment Any exposure assessment should include ALL populations since many people suffering from RF/EMF radiation are not in the listed groups. Many people may treat symptoms of RF/EMF radiation with caffeine or over the counter drugs. No wonder Americans are so unhealthy. Question 13 – Cumulative Exposure Any manmade RF/EMF radiation source that radiates into public spaces and a public person cannot power off must be included in any cumulative exposure assessment. Question 15 - Wireless Infrastructure Exposure ALL types of scientific evidence should be considered when evaluating RF exposure associated with wireless infrastructure for the listed items. I hope somebody reads my comments.

We sincerely appreciate the effort to understand and hopefully combat the emf/emr problem. It has been approximately a ten-year journey for our family to find ways to lessen the effects of emf/emr on our members. Symptoms for one person include random shooting pain as we approach/drive past cell towers, pressure around the head and headaches, eye pain, stomach upset, and as the exposure accumulates this person has experienced seizure like movements in the head/neck/shoulder area. One so severe the head pulled back far enough this person could not see the road for a moment while driving. This happened near a cell tower with an active cell phone in the car which was why we began looking into the emf/emr experience for answers to the symptoms being experienced. We actually moved away from the city for healing for a length of time, then after spending 3 months back in the city the seizure movements and severe headaches returned. Another family member experiences lack of sleep, anxiety and head pain when exposed. Another individual deals with constant headaches as this person travels for work and is required to use the cell phone often. All three individuals have learned that keeping the phone off when possible, especially inside a vehicle, disabling bluetooth, wiring computer and placing on airplane mode, avoiding vehicles with high emf ratings, avoiding hotels with wifi/high radiation etc helps with symptoms. We have hired professional help to remediate our home, evaluate vehicles and have purchased the suggested meters to keep us aware of the levels of exposure we are subjected to in any given situation. We rely on the meters, calibrated with the professional meters used by those we have hired to remediate our home and vehicles. The problems seem cumulative and we are using the meters to find spaces where we can be as free as possible of the radiation or electric pollution. It is quite upsetting to escape to a campground or rural setting for healing purposes and then discover the natural places have also been affected by 5g installments or a tower emitting radiation from miles away. As secondhand smoke is a problem, the emf/emr pollution is much more of a problem. We work with integrative medicine practitioners in an attempt to avoid heavy metal contamination and are finding supplements to help especially with thyroid support and the muscle tension and headaches. Electrical substations also are sources of tension and pressure, not only for us but I have had a friend comment on the pressure felt when dining at a restaurant near one. Thank you for looking into this problem, it gives us hope that we may actually be able to find and live in a protected healthy area.

I am submitting this comment in response to HHS's Request for Information on EMFs, RF Radiation, and Wireless Radiation Exposure (Docket HHS-OASH-2026-0397). I am responding as a parent of young children and as a licensed mental health professional in a rural community. Our long-established town of about 600 people is getting a new 5G tower in its center, near where our children live, learn, and play. It is not yet active. Like many small communities, we are receiving wireless upgrades without any meaningful say in the matter, and without independent information about what they mean for our children's health. I urge HHS to fund a prospective, longitudinal study of communities where new wireless infrastructure, including 5G and future 6G, has been installed but not yet activated. The study should: 1. Establish a baseline before activation, including physical health measures and behavioral, sleep, attention, and mood assessments, with particular attention to children. 2. Measure actual RF exposure in homes, schools, and public spaces before and after activation. 3. Follow the same participants at regular intervals afterward to look for change. 4. Be conducted by researchers with no financial ties to the wireless industry, with funding, methods, and data made public. Rural communities are rarely consulted on these upgrades, and they should be included in this research. Thank you for giving families an opportunity to be heard.

Dear HHS Team, Re: your question No. 5, I co-founded Hilltown Health (hilltownhealth.org), a safe technology advocacy organization in Western MA, more than a decade ago following my wife's developing electromagnetic radiation syndrome (EMR-S) in 2010. We made a film about the above experience, under the auspices of the theatre company we co-founded in 2004 called "Canary in a Gold Mine" which was released several years ago (ptco.org/canary) In short, Hilltown Health has been collaborating with local planning boards to strengthen and update telecom by-laws as well as advocating for more transparency about RF/EMF health effects given the recent rollout of "smart" meters by our utilities, Eversource and National Grid. We have also reached out to school administrators about the involuntary exposure of school age children in classrooms. There are decision makers who receive evidence of harm (for example, the National Toxicology Program cell phone study: https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/research/topics/cellphones or this review of health effects on children and pregnant women: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2026.1915745/full) and are concerned enough to take action. However, many people in decision making positions, for a wide variety of reasons, have not taken any protective measures on behalf of the people for whom they are responsible. Perhaps the most significant reason for inaction is that the concerned federal agencies have generally indicated that the current exposure standards are protective. The majority of the public thinks the wireless devices they are buying (or installing in the case of educational institutions) have undergone some kind of government testing to ensure that long term exposures are safe. Of course, there has been no such testing. The technology is still too new to fully understand the cradle to grave impacts of 24X7, 365 days a year exposure. And the current "safety standards" were based on a test of one hour or less on a group of animals in the 1980's (see slide 19 of Dr. Kent Chamberlin's public talk in Greenfield, MA entitled "Smart Meters: Health, Safety and Opting-Out" given on November 13, 2025 just before smart meters were installed in Western MA with most residents either not knowing that opting out was an option, not realizing there was any cause for concern about wireless exposure from the meter or accompanying infrastructure or simply not being able to afford the opt out fee despite not wanting to be harmed in their home: https://www.hilltownhealth.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Chamberlin-Slides.Smart-Meter-Presentation.Greenfield.pdf This has created a wild west atmosphere with huge amounts of money at stake and led to public comments, for example by a designer of the smart grid for one of our state utilities that he is not aware of any "credible research" indicating health impacts. We know there are thousands of studies going back to the US Navy research in the 1970's documenting health impacts: https://zoryglaser.com/ But the lack of any clear government guidance beyond a general denial / dismissal on the part of the FCC of there being any health effects emboldens those who have been charged by their corporations to maximize profit. In other words, there is a large scale game of "passing the buck" as in, "if you are concerned, take it up with the FCC." And the FCC saying that they rely on organizations like the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) comprised of industry-funded scientists as is well documented in the documentary "Microwaves, Science and Lies": https://vimeo.com/89144337 Meanwhile, my wife's life and the lives of many, many others have been decimated or simply lost in the case of victims of cell phone induced glioma: https://ehtrust.org/science/cell-phone-radiation-linked-to-brain-cancer-and-tumors-published-science/ Thank you for taking prompt action to rectify this inhuman situation which so closely resembles many other US public health disasters fueled by profits and captured agencies, ie, tobacco, Agent Orange, lead, the automobile industry before Nader, DDT, etc. In addition to updating the safety standards, thank you for considering, the design of "off ramps" for stakeholders who are justifiably concerned about massive losses in class action suits if they were to acknowledge wireless injury. Just as auto makers wound up competing on safety, the wireless industry is very capable of doing the same in the context of a thoughtful policy environment. In the long term, they will be grateful for your help. The engineers and PR people doing the day to day work @ Big Tech are not motivated by the opportunity to harm. But most people are not eager to lose their employment which is currently the bind any potential whistleblower would find themselves in. And thank you for your service.

DearDepartment of Human Services, My life was turned upside downb in January 2020 after Verizon 5G Ultra towers emanating milimeter waves were installed in neighborhood. I first thought all the uproar about 5G was over the top, and although I did have issues with feeling burning pain throughout my body and headaches right in front of 3G / 4G towers, it was not life - altering, and I would avoid being around them as much as possible. With the small cell Verizon 5G towers, three were put in a triangulated pattern less than a quarter of a mile from my apartment complex. The first time I walked under one of these towers, my head started vibrating in a way I had never experienced in my life, so right away there was something different / not right here. It only took a day to feel that the air felt "glassy", and it was harder to breathe. I also noticed the birds and crickets becoming much quieter as well. Within three weeks, I realized that I was getting inflammation in my chest wall and thyroid area. It was impacting my singing voice, but then I realized that if I was at least a mile a way from these towers, the inflammation went away after about an hour, and my hoarseness went away. My nextdoor door neighbors were impacted as well, as they started getting swollen lymph nodes in their necks and felling extremely worn out. A year later I started experiencing debilitating brain fog, extreme fatigue, and a red rash on my chest when I was exposed to these millimeter (almost microwave)frequencies! The problem was(and still is at this time), the nearest Verizon 5G Tower is in line of sight of my bedroom window! I started developing terrible insomnia and ringing in my ears, so I had to move my sleep area to my living room, as the closet that contains my metal water heater on my patio just outside of my living area, blocks some of the frequencies. Later I started developing fright or flight feelings 24 - 7, as I felt as if I was being literally poisoned, and my body wanted to run away from the source! The past couple of years I have developed plaque psriorsis on my scalp that is INTOLERABLE and no solutions have been found except to move to a new place, which I can't afford at this time. My medical team thinks I have MAST CEll ACTIVATION SYNDROME (MCAS), but it has not formally been diagnosed at this time. I am also experiencing significant chemical sensitivities now, when it was only a minor issue in the past. I am so exhausted that it is like hitting a literal wall at times, and with most 3 / 4G towers being converted to 5G, I cannot walk near them without experiencing gut wrenching pain. Please eliminate these towers before they cause significant harm to all humans. Warm regards, Lael T. Mark

EMF’s have caused harm to my hands & arms over the past 10 years. My cell phone being the biggest trigger, causing my hands to go white hot and numb up to my shoulders, at age 29. Without an EMF blocking button on my device, the searing pain followed by numbness returns. Any device, be it personal or public, such as a cell tower, should be kept far away from homes, places of residence & work, to ensure the safety of the people.

MY NEIGHBORS AND ANIMALS ARE DYING I am SICK. My family members have been SICK SINCE more than a hundred UNREGULATED TOWERS WENT LIVE over our community. This has been a challenge for me to get anyone to help in my community. I wanted to share my story in hopes of helping others. My story is one of many in Terrebonne Parish. After multiple (9) 300-foot 5G towers were put over our homes, four 300-foot 5G towers were put over my home and animal sanctuary, and four 300-foot towers were put over my office. At the same time, smart meters were put on my home, along with those of every other Entergy customer. I began getting sick, very sick. It began in my petting area with heart palpitations, headaches, vomiting, ringing in my ears, confusion, bleeding gums, insomnia, nightmares, dizziness, anxiety, ears buzzing 24 hours a day, severe fatigue, muscle weakness, and more. I have now been diagnosed with radiation syndrome / EHS (electromagnetic hypersensitivity syndrome) caused by extreme exposure to radiation. Many residents are experiencing similar symptoms. Countless children are now suffering. Being a very healthy person my whole life, this has been a life-changing situation. I am usually the one helping others; now I need your help. I never thought this could happen until I was forced to face it by becoming sick. I'm not sure where this illness will take me. However, I must do all I can to protect my family and my community. Seven neighbors on my street and friends have died after the towers went live over their homes. Many other residents are also sick. My community is surrounded by towers that have no regulatory testing information, nor does our planning department ask for it, citing the FCC's outdated RF radiation guidelines. I became certified in RF radiation testing. I now test the towers and smart meters. I can confirm that the EMF (electromagnetic frequency) / RF (radio frequency) radiation being emitted is extreme for every single product, tower, and smart device I have tested. It has been a fight to protect my family, my community, and myself, with EVERYONE CITING THE FCC'S OUTDATED RF RADIATION GUIDELINES. I had to learn all I could about this to protect my health and theirs. I've had to turn my home, where I have lived for 28 years, into an EMF-safe house (until I sell it), as well as my barn, which is surrounded by EMF material and protection. My bed is covered with EMF protection as well due to the radiation levels in my home. I now have to wear protective clothing all day. Leaving my safe area means becoming exposed due to the unbridled towers around me. I am a very private person. This is not easy to share, but if I do not ask for help now, many more innocent people will be sick, or they will die like my neighbors, my friends, and my animals. Since the towers went live, six of my horses have died instantly under the towers. All of my little animals have died. My 200-pound tortoises started going blind. I'm not sure where the daily radiation exposure will take me, so I thought now is the best time to ask for your help in making a change. THE FCC MUST REGULATE THE RADIATION, OR THE DEATH & DESTRUCTION WILL NEVER END. Technology is safe only if it is REGULATED. Always, Shari Champagne

Our environment is a shared, communal resource. The air we breathe, the land we inhabit, and the spaces where our children grow are not the exclusive property of industry, companies, utilities, or stockholders. Yet corporations profit from infrastructure that introduces electromagnetic exposures into environments shared by families with little opportunity to object. Telecommunications providers, SMUD, PG&E, and Comcast benefit economically from expanding electrical and wireless infrastructure. Meanwhile, children and communities may bear environmental and health risks without informed participation, compensation, or adequate long-term scientific assurances. The profits are privatized, while potential risks are distributed across the public. As a mother, I invest my body, time, resources, and energy into my children's health. Pregnancy, breastfeeding, nutrition, education, and medical care are investments in their neurological development, cellular health, and future well-being. Why should corporations introduce additional environmental exposures without adequately demonstrating their long-term safety for developing children? Children are stakeholders. They cannot negotiate exposure conditions, commission independent studies, or participate in infrastructure decisions. Their inability to consent creates a greater ethical responsibility for adults, corporations, and government agencies. The long-term neurological effects of chronic RF exposure, particularly during critical developmental periods, warrant independent investigation. I am concerned about mitochondrial function, cellular homeostasis, oxidative stress, neurological signaling, reproductive development, and potential intergenerational consequences. The absence of conclusive evidence of harm does not establish safety under every exposure condition. There is also a serious security concern. Telecommunications and electrical infrastructure are increasingly interconnected with digital control systems. Cybersecurity vulnerabilities, unauthorized access, deliberate interference, and malicious manipulation deserve independent assessments. These systems should be protected against misuse, including intentional disruption or hazardous operation. What safeguards prevent infrastructure designed for communication and electrical distribution from being deliberately misused to harm the public? I request transparent cybersecurity oversight, independent vulnerability assessments, enforceable security standards, and public accountability without disclosure of sensitive security details. Under principles of environmental justice, nonmaleficence, intergenerational equity, and responsible stewardship, government must consider every affected stakeholder—not merely infrastructure owners, investors, and commercial beneficiaries. The public should not have to finance private environmental testing, establish individual medical causation, or suffer injury before legitimate concerns receive investigation. I request that HHS recommend a precautionary pause on further wireless infrastructure expansion in residential and child-centered environments pending independent review of long-term developmental risks. I also request evaluation of removal or relocation of existing towers where site-specific evidence demonstrates unacceptable exposure or safety risks. I request independent longitudinal research, publicly accessible exposure measurements, meaningful community participation, and regulatory coordination among HHS, FCC, EPA, and appropriate state authorities. I do not consent to my children being treated as involuntary experimental subjects in an environment where long-term exposure questions remain unresolved. Environmental exposure does not automatically constitute human-subjects research under federal law. However, widespread exposure under scientific uncertainty raises profound ethical questions about informed participation, precaution, and justice in distributing potential harm. No corporation should receive the economic benefits of technological expansion while transferring potentially preventable health and environmental costs to children and future generations without accountability. Our children are not collateral costs of technological progress. Their neurological development, cellular health, bodily integrity, and environmental inheritance deserve consideration before additional infrastructure is approved. I demand that public-health protection take precedence over unchecked expansion, that existing infrastructure be independently evaluated, and that future generations receive the protection and representation they cannot yet demand for themselves. Respectfully submitted, Cherrish “I Do Not Consent” Castaneda Mother of Three | Student of Law and Bioethics Sacramento County, California

I spent a long time wondering whether it was even worth writing anything, given that it is well known that electromagnetic waves are harmful not only to humans but also to animals, insects, and the natural world—they are lethal to us all. We are destroying everything that surrounds us. Nevertheless, I want to highlight how our health and lives are being ruined. For the past six years, I have lived 40 feet away from a cell tower. It was erected despite legal regulations prohibiting it—but such rules pose no obstacle for brazen corporations. What is it like to live near a cell tower? My older son had to flee our home after three years because he was suffocating and unable to breathe. Whenever he left for school, he felt perfectly fine; but whenever he returned home for the holidays or breaks, the nightmare would begin—to such an extent that he had to leave the family home for good, as his breathing attacks were so severe they became life-threatening. Two years later, my younger son began suffering from such intense suffocation that he had to leave the house at night just to save his life. Today, even though he is still a minor, he no longer lives with his parents, because our home poses a direct threat to his health and life. Why this conclusion? Because for the past four years, every time he left the house, he experienced immense relief—the breathing attacks would simply not occur whenever he was away from home or our own yard. He had to move out to save his life. We, his parents, tried to hold on for quite a long time—we loved our home and this place too much to simply leave—but today, we too are fleeing; the impact of the waves has become so unbearable that we can no longer function. As for me—the person writing this—my kidneys, liver, and pancreas have all failed. The headaches are so severe that they offer no respite, neither by day nor by night. And it’s not just my family’s life that has been destroyed. We live in a protected area—designated "conservation land"—yet that didn't stop criminals from a telecommunications company, in collusion with city officials, from cutting down dozens of trees to erect a tower. The tower quickly began killing the young trees surrounding the site; now, the area is littered with the stumps of dead trees. It’s impossible to take a photograph right now—the leaves have fallen, so the truly horrifying sight isn't as visible. In our own yard, we have over a dozen fruit trees and bushes—yet for the past four years, there hasn't been a single piece of fruit—not one!—despite thousands of blossoms on every tree. What happened? All the bees have been wiped out; even the ones we tried to bring in couldn't survive. Nature destroyed, insects gone, human health ruined—all while the company reaps profits from our tragedy. This is the kind of state we are forced to live in. Today, these towers are being expanded threefold, even though the conditions for such expansion were strictly defined—yet no one adheres to them. After all, who would care about people or nature? One can only hope that the evil being perpetrated will eventually catch up with those who cause it—let’s hope so!

I am submitting as an individual with several years of hands-on radiofrequency field-measurement experience in Flushing, Queens, New York City. I respond to Questions 2, 7, and 8. Q2 — Perspective: I am a citizen measurer, not a clinician, researcher, or industry professional. Everything below comes from my own field measurements with a handheld GQ EMF-390 multi-field meter (manufacturer-stated RF range 10 MHz–10 GHz, three-axis sensor, peak-hold on), not from peer-reviewed research. I make no claims about health effects; my contribution is measurement methodology and real-world observation. Q7 — How real-world exposure is measured in practice: I measure with a handheld GQ EMF-390 multi-field meter (manufacturer-stated RF range 10 MHz–10 GHz, three-axis sensor), peak-hold on. Across several evening sessions at home in Flushing, live RF power-density readings sat between 2.3 and 19 mW/m², while the meter's peak-hold repeatedly captured short electric-field spikes far above the live number — 77, 100, 139 and 397 V/m, and 1002 V/m in one session; a daytime outdoor session captured 725 V/m. The device's spectrum view labeled the dominant activity "WiFi/Phone," but I was unable to verify the specific source of the repeated peak spikes — their origin is unidentified. Two practical observations: (1) the peak number and the live number on the same meter, seconds apart, can differ by orders of magnitude, and compliance-style time-averaged measurements report only the latter; (2) there is no public dataset capturing what a person experiences at home or at a bus stop with a phone in hand, versus what a compliance measurement at a fixed distance, height, and averaging time reports. Q8 — How exposure could be measured better: (a) HHS should publish a standardized, low-cost field-measurement protocol — instrument class, detector, resolution bandwidth, sweep settings, and averaging time — so that citizen measurements are comparable across people and places; (b) both peak and time-averaged values should be reported and disclosed side by side, since the public only ever sees one number; (c) HHS should maintain a public repository for citizen-collected measurement data with location and timestamp, so real-world exposure maps can be built from thousands of independent readings instead of relying solely on carrier compliance filings. Q18 — One clear request: recognize citizen-measured RF exposure data as a complement to compliance data, not a replacement. The people who live under the antennas are willing to do the measuring; what is missing is a standard that makes their measurements count. Sources: my own field measurements as described above. No medical or personal identifying information is included, per the notice's instructions.