Towers & siting

I am Robert J. Berg, the principal of the Law Office of Robert J. Berg PLLC. My law firm specializes in representing persons seeking the responsible siting of wireless communications facilities. Essentially, our clients oppose the placement of cell towers and other wireless facilities in residential neighborhoods, near schools, day care and senior centers, parks, ball fields, nursing homes, and similar areas where people live, recreate, or spend considerable time. Their concern primarily is that the health risks of non-consensual exposure to wireless radiation 24/7 are considerable and needs to be minimized or prevented if possible. Unfortunately, when Congress passed the Telecommunications Act of 1996, it acceded to industry's demand that State or local law is preempted if it denies a permit for the installation and operation of a wireless facility based on environmental concerns of the effect of wireless radiation exposure so long as the RF levels are within the FCC's RF emissions guidelines. Thus, federal law prevents our clients from raising health and environmental concerns when objecting to the siting of cell towers and other wireless facilities in their communities. Our clients then must rely on the FCC to be the guardian of their health with its RF emissions guidelines. Sadly, the FCC has refused to update its 1996 emissions guidelines despite many thousands of peer reviewed published scientific studies showing serious health and environmental impacts from exposure to wireless radiation from cell towers and cell phones and other wireless products. The FCC's 2019 decision to end its inquiry on a proposed rule-making inquiry to revise its 1996 guidelines was challenged in the DC Circuit, and the Court ruled that the FCC's decision, in large part, was arbitrary and capricious. The Court remanded the matter, in part, to address the questions posed by the Court and to reconsider the scientific literature. The FCC cannot be trusted. It has admitted that it has no expertise in the health, environmental, and medical issues. The FCC will need to rely on HHS's expertise. We are very fortunate that HHS is engaging in an analysis of the health issues relating to wireless radiation, and we applaud HHS for undertaking this important work. Thank you.

I used to have great sleep; but since many years, I have disrupted and poor sleep which has an effect on my health. I think that the cell towers might have something to do with it. I absolutely don't want a cell tower need my home. Please help us with our health!!!

For a long time I have been wary of RF. I was a computer analyst at a giant radar site. There I sensed and learned about the adverse effects of this kind of energy. Later on, AT&T tried to put a cell tower into my neighborhood. It was frightening to a majority of us who chose to live ina rural community. In the end the tower did not get installed. However, PG&E placed smart meters o our homes without our permission. We just want to live without so much pollution and protect our neighborhood, its wildlife and forest. We don’t need it! We don’t want it!

I have experienced the adverse health effects of EMFs exposure on myself. Example 1: Time ago I had an hour long phone conversation. During the conversation I held the cell phone close to my right ear almost all the time. For the next three days I experienced an inflamed bloated red ear and swollen glands in the neck. I did not seek medical attention. The symptoms faded naturally over time. I became concerned about the potential long term health effects of that exposure. I started using either wired or Bluetooth earphones to talk on the phone. I try to keep the cellphone away from the body as much as possible. Example 2: I have a Wi-Fi router in the home. If I stay close to it longer than 30 or 40 seconds I start feeling dizzy. As soon as I move away from it the dizziness disappears. I imagine there's scientific research about the negative health effects of EMFs exposure. Personally I do not need to see any scientific proof of it, because I already know that EMFs exposure can have adverse health effects. I have personal direct experience of the issue. I know there are people particularly sensitive to EMFs exposure that unfortunately experience harsher symptoms compared to the symptoms I had. Urban environments concern me the most because of the high concentration of EMF emitting devices like cell towers and antennas. I urge the current administration to consider any reasonable measure to limit the exposure of people to EMFs, hoping that public health will be considered (as it should) of higher priority over profit. Thank you for your attention.

I have felt the effects of radiation on my health and the health of my children which include headaches, severe constant nausea, increased anxiety, hand tremors, disturbed sleep patterns, chronic fatigue, increased agitation. I started noticing a pattern of these symptoms over the past six years. It has affected my life in ways that you cannot even imagine. These cell phone towers are used as weapons on the American people and absolutely nothing you say will change my mind regarding that. I know of many patents that prove that is exactly what they are used for.

I am an emf-sensitive person, my 10 year old is also sensitive. Traveling in hotels in the US has become difficult, we never can stay in a top floor rooms or neither of us will sleep. We toss and turn and feel like we're vibrating, it's terrible. We travel with wifi kill-switches when renting air bnbs for family vacations and sometimes need to move beds away from walls, after locating the routers in each space. In addition to the massive sleep disturbances, I'm not sure I understand why other entire countries do not allow WiFi in childcare centers and schools and in the US there are no rules/regulations protecting our children. I was shocked when moving to my state and seeing 5g towers in most public buildings-public schools, community centers, police stations, why? I am unable to have my child participate in our local community center programs because I will not subject him or myself to parking alongside a 5g tower-nausea and headaches ensue. I appreciate some states, like New York, passed a bill that a tower couldn't be built a certain distance from schools where children are learning and spending so much time of their childhoods. Can the US mandate this for all states, our children need to be protected! Thank you, thank you for taking the time to look into making these much needed changes in public spaces so those of us who suffer with the headaches, nausea and massive sleep disturbances can be helped. We've chosen to home school because there is no way my son could sit through an entire school year, year after year, with the constant wifi (why can't the rooms be hard-wired?!) and the public school in our neighborhood has the largest 5g tower in its parking lot. Why?! Again, thank you for looking into this, taking a look at how other countries are doing this differently and with caution (as we have NO long term safety data, why are our kids the guinea pigs?).

I am writing about what effects I have had from exposure to Electromagnetic Radiation and Radio frequency radiations. -I am a water well driller and I haven't been able to drill any wells, due to the electricity from cell and radio towers gathering in my equipment. -Continuous operation of a wi-fi router in my home disrupts my sleep and it has to be shut off. -I had a cell phone in my pocket, and my leg got injured at work. It was just a minor cut on my shin; it would not heal and progressed to an infection similar to gangrene. The doctor I saw said my white blood count was low, and if it didn't get better, my leg would need to be amputated. I got rid of my cell phone and started sleeping in a Faraday cage. Then, my leg healed. -When I'm in high EMF my blood pressure goes up. Then when I get out of it my blood pressure goes back to normal. -If I'm riding in a car full of EMF, I feel weak and, when I get out of the car, I feel clumsy and about to fall down. -I can't sleep in hotels, I can't even go to town, or to stores that are using wireless technology, without getting headaches. -I have to regularly soak my feet in water to lower the voltage in myself. -It dries out my whole body 24/7. -My wife was diagnosed with ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) in August 2021, about a year and a half after we had wi-fi installed for our kids to do their schoolwork during covid, and 5G was rolling out around the same time. She stayed at home to keep helping them along with their studies. Then she was diagnosed with melanoma not long after that. That was taken care of, then she got BREAST CANCER! She sadly passed in 2024 from the ALS. -I've read a lot of studies about the effects of EMF from the Environmental Health Trust. I've read studies written by Dr. Martin Pall, Dr. Sharon Goldberg, Magda Havas, and Dr. Devra Davis. -I've read the book Dirty Electricity by MD Samuel Milham. We sincerely appreciate your attention on this matter. I recognize that EMF is very cancerous and toxic to EVERYONE! I hope that we solve this problem. SOON!

Thank you for the opportunity to submit information regarding biological effects and potential health hazards of low-level, long-term exposure to radiofrequency radiation (RFR). I am an environmental engineer and scientist. I began my career in 1980 as a groundwater hydrologist and geochemist. Since 2017 I've been researching and writing about the biological effects and potential health hazards of man-made electromagnetic fields (EMF). I am uploading here two technical reports I co-authored in 2019. The first one is a review of the scientific literature regarding potential health hazards of radio towers and cell phone base stations ("cell towers"). The second one is a set of maps we made to display visually the levels of RFR we measured throughout several residential neighborhoods. We provided the reports to the planning commission and the city council in Davis, California, in support of the town's project to update its ordinance governing the siting of mobile phone base stations (cell towers). I hope the two reports will be useful to you, as well as to anyone else who finds them here. The maps contained therein are fairly unique in that they contain many data points. Doing so makes it easy to see clearly the dispersion pattern of radiofrequency radiation around each cell tower. I am also uploading a one-page table outlining certain biological effects and the associated levels of RFR radiation. It helps to provide additional context for the maps.

I am submitting this comment in response to HHS’s Request for Information on Electromagnetic Fields (EMFs), Radiofrequency (RF) Radiation, and Wireless Radiation Exposure. I am responding from the perspective of a parent and mother of four. Wireless radiation has affected our entire family with increased headaches, POTS symptoms and moodiness amongst our four children-we have also noticed dizziness and nausea associated with long periods on cell phones or air pods and iPads needed to use for school. It can take several hours or more to go away and the moodiness can take up to three days to alleviate and the need to get off all electronics. These symptoms have happened with all our WiFi devices, but especially those closest to us, like cell phones and air pods/ipads/laptops. In addition, if we spend time near cell towers we have an increase in symptoms and POTS episodes, migraines and dizziness. Y We support people affected by wireless radiation and believe HHS should address this issue and make Verizon, Apple, and other wireless companies accountable for the use of their products and not allow 5G towers near schools, hospitals, residential areas or wildlife/oceans/natural areas. Just because we can, doesn’t mean we should. I am no fan of China, but they have banned cell phone use for young children and have time limits for exposure. We need to go back to hand held books for children so they are not on devices all day at school and then all evening for assignments that are all electronic. I support HHS taking an active role in examining the potential health and environmental effects of wireless radiation. Questions about human health should be addressed by federal agencies with appropriate expertise in medicine, biology, epidemiology, and public health, and the experiences of individuals and families who report being affected should be considered alongside the scientific evidence. I urge HHS to carefully evaluate these experiences and the scientific evidence, identify gaps in current research, give particular attention to children and other potentially vulnerable populations, and establish appropriate federal research priorities regarding wireless radiation and public health. The affects of these devices and towers should not be a hidden warning buried in our devices-they should come with black box warnings and studies on our mitochondria and emotional/physical health should be made priority. Thank you for providing individuals and families with an opportunity to be heard.

The boosters they attach to telephone poles with their own electric box are monitored by gamma ray technicians. I called the phone number they post just below the lines and asked for the data the gamma ray technicians did on the pole near my home. They directed me to multiple departments when I finally got someone I asked for data or specifics. He couldn’t give me anything because he didn’t have anything amd sent me to a Verizon site that didn’t list any information. Data needs to be public knowledge specifically the device, the placement and what it’s giving off and the measurements of it. I’m also sensitive to emf, and WiFi I use multiple blankets and blockers to negate the headaches, hot flashes and palpitations. If it’s turned off all my symptoms disappear within a few minutes.