County to “Beef Up” Wireless Antenna Rules

"Please let our baby sleep peacefully and safely in his crib."

His concerns were echoed by nearly three dozen others who complained about the lack of scientific proof...

Don't take your hideous little baby on a trip anywhere, cause those antennas are everywhere!

Why not just dig a hole in your back yard and slide in? You will be safe there.

More nonsense from the scientifically illiterate. Shaun Tomson and Billy Baldwin are experts? Puhlease. Is anyone presenting DATA at these hearings?

And Carbajal is just a political weathervane, largely unconcerned with facts, but highly concerned with votegetting and grandstanding. Kinda like his buddy Nava.

I tend to equate this group to the anti-oil crowd. They slam the oil companies, but still drive a car, some even SUV's.
Meanwhile, those complaining about the cell towers are ardent cell phone users. Some even use their cellphones while driving their SUV's.
Seems like everyone wants the best of both worlds in a world that is limited. I bet the Montecito folks wouldn't have an issue w/ the cell towers if they were near some other school not near their's.
If you hate oil so much, don't drive a car or use any petroleum based products.
If you hate the cell phone towers so much, ditch your cell phone & wireless system.
I think a compromise can be reached, but it's smelling like a NIMBY thing for the moment.
As for the scientific data, it is all based on a study done in North Europe some time back that was deemed full of flaws :) henry

I have to agree with the sentiment posted so far. As an electrical engineering student, I can tell you that the amount of EM radiation put out by one of these micro-towers is minimal. Even if we were talking about a full-fledged television tower (100,000+ watts), you'd have to literally be within 10 feet for something like a month straight in order to get even the equivalent of an x-ray. The frequencies these devices operate at are entirely safe, and the energy level drops of geometrically with increasing distance. Here, you've got much smaller towers, so the risk is practically zero. Basically unless you build a treehouse on the top of the utility poll and move in, you're going to be fine. And if you actually did, you'd probably get more radiation from the electrical lines running through the poll anyway.

Well, 1 EE guy to another, you said it best! The Earth produces a field WAY stronger than any cell transmission tower placed @ a safe operating range, compliments @ the bD/cm losses that occur. You mention x-rays & that is a different part of the wave spectrum, something omitted by those opposed. It's funny because where I live in IV there's 1 of those micro towers just around the corner on Sueno & Camino del Sur. My wife was kind of freaking out about it & when I showed her ambient wattage readings that I made in the immediate vicinity against a n area w/ no towers, her fears subsided. Then again, she also used to fear the nuker in our kitchen & @ low W @ 2.45 GHz in the immediate field inside, shielded, that is nothing :) henry

I meant dB/cm, dyslexia got the best of me. Must be that transmission tower around the corner from our apartment :) henry

"Christmas trees with laser swords pointing in the sky"

and from another news source:
"Montecito resident Shaun Tomson said one of NextG's antenna sites is exactly 100 feet from his young son's crib. If it's installed, Tomson said the antenna will "beam radiation into baby Luke's brain.""

Just can't make this stuff up folks, comedy gold. What's next, Cito residents pleading for a ban on con trail emitting planes (gov't brainwashing), nalgene water bottles (death by plastic bottle) or the dogs with bees in their mouths, and when they bark they shot bees at babies? ahh the insanity, good for a laugh though.

I say they should all get those aluminum foil hats the loonies wear to repel the neutron pellets from attacking their brains. Oops, wait, too late, their brains have already been attacked :) henry

That's the ticket! Aluminum foil hats for the Montecitans lacking in any aspect of scientific knowledge. As yet another EE to those already posting: the problem with
providing data based on physics is that the objectionista know nothing of physics and don't know what they don't know. A sad example of decades of failure in education people in basic science....

As for the comment that the data has been discredited, one must ask why it is still on the American Cancer Society website and by whom the data has been discredited? Perhaps the same liars that were recently uncovered fabricating global warming data???

John, I think that in this cancer-fearing society of ours anyone will grasp @ any straw. Of course, as I'm sure you know, if there's the possibiltiy of making some $$$ from said "research" you can bet $ to doughnuts that there will be those there to do said research. Simple physics & understanding of electrical behavior as well as materials are what totally lacks in many of the arguments by the "fear EMF" crowd. The funny thing is most, if not all of them STILL USE CELLPHONES! I guess they got over their fears that cellphones cause brain tumors. Not to diminish such a horrible disease, but do you REALLY think a cellphone can do that? If that's the case this country should be afflicted heavily, not to mention the rest of the world that uses cellphones. The fearmongers have struck yet again :) henry

From the American Cancer Society website:

What Does the Epidemiologic Evidence Say?

No human studies have focused specifically on cellular phone towers or even on radio waves more generally. Several studies have looked at the effects of radio waves and microwaves combined; these have generally not shown any increase in cancer, except for a US Air Force study that suggested an increase in brain tumors in association with radiofrequency/microwave exposure.

What Does the Animal Evidence Say?

A number of animal studies have been conducted, generally showing no carcinogenic (cancer-causing) effect of radio waves. Several experiments have used exposure levels that cause a rise in tissue temperature, and even in these studies, there was no increase in DNA mutations or in cancer. A recent review concluded that: "The scientific evidence indicates that exposure to radiofrequency radiation fields is not mutagenic and is therefore unlikely to act as an initiator of carcinogenesis."

Awesome website w/ lots of info, to those in Montecito, put down your aluminum foil hats & check it out when you have a chance :) henry

If they have another hearing, let's all go down and offer everyone tin foil hats.

If a federal agency announced that it had decided to install anthrax dispensers on telephone poles in our community as a matter of "national security," state and local officials could enforce a safety ordinance protecting residents. If the feds, or Paul O'Boyle, esq., argued in court that the safety ordinance was preempted by federal law, they would lose. If they argued that anthrax is safe, and that all the fuss a few years ago was just a big mistake, they would still lose.

States and charter cities have power to protect the public health within their borders. We are taught in high school that federal and state governments share power in the USA. That's why we're not simply called "America." I hope our county and city legal eagles mention that the next time Mr. O'Boyle holds court.

How does the Board of Supervisors "allow city staff to reexamine the ordinance?" Has NextG already scrambled our synapses?

Get a clue and an education in technology douglasgillies. It is not the purview of state and local governments to make regulation over what they know nothing about. You and your Luddite ilk are pathetic. Scrambled synapses are what you get INSIDE a microwave. Once again, the power involved in these nanosites is tiny. Got physics?

Why would anyone want to install "anthrax dispensers" on phone poles? Wouldn't that be more of a suicide pact than an attempt @ defense? I think the synapses douglasguilles' synapses are definately scrambleb based on that illogic. Too much time in the nuker? :) henry

The cancer rates have increased dramatically throughout silicon valley after cell phone usage increased. I am one of those individuals who is sensitive to EMF. I can feel it in my body and sometimes it prevents a restful sleep. The situation is already lost for Santa Barbara. Local politicians and governments don't have the courage to stand up to big businesses and the money they donate to campaigns.

The best thing to do is to find individuals who share your values and create communities that exclude those who don't share those values. This seems harsh, but it is the only way to survive the unconscious behavior of the rest of society. I am in the process of buying land for this very reason.

Rainforest, the increase in cancer rates in San Jose's Si Valley are actually attributed the GaAs (gallium arsenide) getting into the groundwater supply. GaAs is extensively used ib the memory chip industry, nothing to do w/ EMF/RF/MW issues. The only standing up to big business by politicians comes down to when they want a piece of the $$$ pie, then you'll see standing room only :) henry

I also gave some quick thought to your plight on the sensitivity to EMF & my suggestion for you is don't use your computer. The internal circuitry runs @ a frequency range & has a field range similar to that of a cellphone. Also, I hope that you don't have any AC (alternating current) sources in your abode,as while it is only in the 60 Hz range, the field emissions from any household appliance is stronger than that of a cellphone. In fact, the best place to live is in a shielded Faraday cage because the Earth's magnetic fileds are WAY more powerful than any field produced by a cellphone. It's either that or wrap yourself w/ copper wire & attach yourself to any standing pipe, you'll ground out any collected field :) henry

Hank: good to know!

Hey man, gotta move beyond those silly looking aluminum foil hats you know! You might get mistaken for a Christmas ornament :) henry

@Rainforest_spirit: put on your aluminum bodysuit, turn off all your electricity, climb into your crystal pyramid, and you'll be safe forever. Yeah, that's the ticket...

Not to make light of cancer, but Joe Jackson addresses the issue at hand in this music video lest we become consumed with our fears.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYIUYz...

Y'all make sense, with one or two exceptions, and I have nothing to add on that score.

What none of us have noted here though, is how these people, when trying to ram their interests down everyone else's throats, is how they hide behind their children.

People who pimp their kids in order to push their politics or any other opinion completely disgust me.

They aren't adult enough, nor do they have the courage of their own convictions, to stand up like a grownup and say "I don't want this..." and then give a reason why.

In my experience, when people start waving "The Children" around as the genesis and core of their argument or point of view, they immediately lose ALL credibility with me.

If they have to hide behind "The Children", then they have lost the argument completely. This says that they have no argument...and they know it..so they dust off and trot out the oldest and most effective weapon known to society, "The Children", and sadly, once that happens, they usually win, no matter how ridiculous and utterly unfounded their argument may be. No one would DARE say "no" to "The Children".

In the world I grew up in, adults are supposed to protect children. They aren't supposed to wave them about like signs at a streetcorner protest. They aren't supposed to trot them out and parade them before the media and cameras to be fodder in a political discourse.

It's become de rigeur to reach into the Tahoe, yank out a kid or two, and scream the Mantra: "What about The Children??" when things get hot or you see your side is losing the credibility war.

And that's just disgusting...and tells us all that these people have no argument.

The icing on the cake is the presence of the usual suspects involved...IE Salud Carbajal, media hound extraordinaire. It's surprising that his littermates Wolf & Farr weren't also yapping in harmony with him. Any completely outrageous and ridiculous nanny law proposal is always accompanied by plenty of noise from this bunch and Pedro Nava.

If these yahoos are all so worried about RF, then they should A: get an education after B: removing their Reynolds Wrap hats and C: put the cell phone down NOW.

For those of you so obssesed with hats, watch this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=btpd8z...