[TowerTalk] rf radiation

[Craig Clark]

Over 23 years ago, a fellow by the name of Brodeur wrote a book titled "The 
Zapping of America." Ham Radio Magazine's bookstore (my alma mater) carried 
the book and sold quite a few copies. His premise was that electrical power 
lines were causing cancer in a number of communities.
The problems was that there was no conclusive evidence that his theory  was 
correct. His book dealt in innuendo and half truths..."a friend of a friend 
has a friend who contracted ......" you know the story.

A few years later, the New Yorker magazine ran a rather long and tedious 
follow up article where Brodeur made additonal claims that cell phones were 
carcinogenic agents. Again, claims were made but the "facts" were without 
proof.

Alarmed by the possible impact on the amateur radio hobby, Stu Cowan of 
Radio Publications, Skip Tenney, Joe Schroeder, Dorothy Rosa, myself and a 
few others started collecting everything we could find about this 
"potential" problem. The League also formed a committee. Wayne Overbeck, 
N6NB, was also involved in these efforts (If I forgot to mention someone, I 
apologize. I'm getting forgetful in my older age. :-)

In a nutshell, after much research, while there were concerns, there was NO 
conclusive proof that RF radiation caused cancer. There are concerns over 
ionizing radiation (RF that changes the state of matter.) But non-ionizing 
radiation, most amateur applications, does not have any links to hightened 
levels of cancer.

The problem is the methodology of epidemiological studies...how do you 
account for all the variables. For instance, an alcoholic smoker, who is a 
TV Broadcast engineer and ham, who also moonlights in a metal cleaning shop 
that used tricholoroethelyne (sp?) develops cancer. What caused the cancer?

I am not a doctor and I don't claim to be an expert. I share this only as 
an example of how "members of the community" can bend "facts" to meet their 
needs. Show me a study that proves that a tower lowers the resale value of 
a house.

FWIW....


73 Craig W1JCC

73 Craig Clark W1JCC

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