The Santa Cruz County Planning Department approved plans to modify an existing AT&T cell tower on the campus of Cabrillo College to expand LTE wireless data service.
The tower, which is located at the horticulture center on the hill above the main Cabrillo campus, will be disguised as a tree to visually blend with the existing landscape.
A half dozen Cabrillo students and members of the public spoke at Fridays hearing against the plan to increase microwave output on campus, and blamed the existing tower and others like it for a host of health problems.
"I might need to quit school in order to be well again," said Cabrillo student Andrea Thomas. "No person should be made to choose between success and their health. This is the decision I am faced with as my once healthy body becomes sicker with each passing school day."
Another woman who lived near Cabrillo said smart meters and the cell towers forced her to move to a different area.
"I had perfect health all my life, I slept great, never had any issues," she said. "Then in the late 90's I didn't sleep for three years, I had constant headaches, heart palpitations, dizzy, lots of memory loss. I actually had to leave my house."
Bettye Saxon, director of AT&Ts external affairs said the emissions from the new tower will be well within federal guidelines, and will not pose a health risks to the community.
"I would like to direct people to FCC.gov. There are people out there, there are scientists who have done studies, and we are fine," said Saxon.
Rachmat Martin, a long time resident of Santa Cruz and engineering graduate from Stanford who worked for 30 years in telecommunications said the reason cell tower radiation is so dangerous is because of the slow, covert nature of the damage it inflicts.
"The industry would like us to believe it is all safe. I would like to assure you what we have here is not safe. What we have heard today is just the tip of the iceburg of people who have experienced health problems," Martin said.
"It's my understanding that the reason for this are that the effects are slowly cumulative," said Martin.
"People start off with headaches, which are the hallmark of this kind of thing, then auto-immune disorders of all kinds, and then cancers. Most people don't get sick all at once. They creep up over a period of months and years. "
g) When my family lived on Jennifer Drive, overlooking the college, we conducted a survey of our street — bouncing off of rumors we had heard about a few too many times — and found that virtually everyone on Jennifer Drive either had cancer, or had lost a family member living there to cancer, or had a pet which was deformed in some way. Our “educated guess” was that the horror was caused, in part at least, by the cell towers which are housed at nearby Cabrillo College.
h) The institution profits very well by housing those cell towers on campus adjacent to the Agricultural Department at the top of its hill;
i) Not a single student or faculty member or anyone from Administration or any worker on campus had a clue as to what the Telecommunications Act of 1996 says about cell towers (and I have conducted surveys on and off campus regarding that for many years);
j) None of the seniors at UCSC — where some Cabrillo College graduates end up — knew anything about the Telecommunications Act of 1996 either. Neither did any of those seniors know WHO pays for the research to date for respecting potential problems from cell tower radiation or Wi-Fi effects in that realm;
k) No one anywhere in any of the locations noted above knows how little research has been done at all;
l) No one has been willing to have any in-depth discussion with me respecting WHY in the U.S. there is virtually no discussion concerning the Precautionary Principle (embraced by the EU) vis-à-vis the radiation associated with high tech gadgetry;
m) No one at Cabrillo College — out of over fifty attempts — could tell me what abominations are taking place in the Congo to enable them to have their high tech gadgets working;
n) No one on campus who bills themselves as being interested in providing leadership training for students has been willing to talk to me about my ideas in that regard, in spite of my forty plus years experience in academia.
There is a chorus… not unlike the chorus one comes across in Greek tragedies… singing loud and clear, NOT addressing issues dear to our hearts. Moving our youngsters to contribute to their own demise.
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