Tower Gets Lot of Static : Microwave Transmitter at Elementary School Too Risky, Say Parents

Waving hand-painted placards, a group of parents lined the road in front of Silverado Elementary School on Tuesday morning to protest a 150-foot microwave tower that was built on school grounds in March by L.A. Cellular.

The looming tower stands about 100 yards from the front doors of the school’s kindergarten classrooms. Parents have complained about the unknown dangers from microwave transmissions as well as the possibility of an accident since the tower is within half a mile of training areas used by helicopters from the Tustin and El Toro Marine Corps air stations.

“I just don’t like having my kid for a guinea pig,” said Tom Earnest, who has a son in the school’s sixth grade and a daughter in kindergarten. “These kids are really compromising their health for real cheap.”

As they stood shivering in the early-morning chill, a dozen parents called for a boycott of L.A. Cellular. A few feet away, commuters sped by along Santiago Canyon Road, some of them talking on cellular phones that bounce their signals off the school-based tower.

At the heart of the parents’ protest is their contention that health officials disagree about the safety of microwave transmissions.

Officials at L.A. Cellular said Tuesday that the electromagnetic fields around cellular towers are too weak to harm human cell structures. A spokesman said the industry is spending $15 million to $25 million on a three- to five-year research program to determine if the phones themselves cause cancer.

The parents are also angry that they were not notified by the school district when it agreed to lease the land for the tower. L.A. Cellular pays the school district about $1,000 a month under its lease.

The Orange Unified School District signed the contract for the tower at Silverado Elementary in July, 1990. It was built to serve the thousands of South County commuters who take Santiago Canyon Road, portions of which otherwise cannot receive a signal due to the mountainous terrain.

Jim Sill, a parent who organized the protest, said the cellular-phone company is “systematically targeting” schools.

Strapped for cash, schools are becoming a popular location for cellular antennas and towers, including schools in the Garden Grove and Irvine school districts. But some attempts to set up antennas and towers have been resisted by parents and teachers.

Pac Tel Cellular dropped plans to build a 75-foot antenna at a Garden Grove elementary school in June, after parents and teachers presented the school board with 400 signatures opposing it. A similar proposal was rejected in the Capistrano Unified School District.

From the outset Orange school district officials have expressed confidence that the tower is safe.

However, those assurances have not placated Janet Pellocuin, an X-ray technician with a child in the school’s kindergarten. It will take years before scientists know the real effects of microwave radiation, she said.

“It took them 50 years to find out X-rays were dangerous,” she said. “Why put something next to children that we know is emitting radiation?”

Initially, scientists thought people were unaffected by electromagnetic radiation fields, said Shelly Rosenblum, an engineer with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Recent laboratory studies show subtle biological changes in some cells at certain frequencies and some studies seem to show signs of cancer in children exposed to high-current power lines, he said. Electromagnetic waves are invisible, and include a spectrum ranging from gamma rays to X-rays to radio waves. Microwaves are the shortest form of radio waves.

“We feel that some of the evidence is suggestive but not at all conclusive regarding health effects,” Rosenblum said.

But the “power levels emitted from cellular poles” are so low, they can’t even be compared to regular radio transmission, Rosenblum said.

Still, negative health effects could be related to something other than the power of a transmission or the frequency of a microwave radiation, Rosenblum said.

“Somehow there might be some combination of signal and power and frequency that we don’t understand that make it into our body,” he said. “We don’t understand whether they would ultimately result in some kind of biological damage.”

Silverado Elementary School Principal Ray Brooks, who was not informed about the tower being built, said he generally does not believe there will be ill health effects on the children.

“I have nothing that would indicate there is something to be concerned about,” he said. “At least today.”

But with a new superintendent at the district office, some canyon parents hope that the district can be persuaded that the tower should be removed. Members of the community met with Supt. Marilyn Corey Tuesday night.