LAGUNA BEACH : Parents Protest Microwave Tower

Parents at El Morro Elementary School, citing potential health risks, are demanding the removal of a 90-foot PacTel microwave tower built on school grounds this summer to transmit cellular phone calls.

The parents, who met with school officials last week during an emotional meeting, are expected to bring their case to the Laguna Beach Unified School District Board of Education on Tuesday.

The school board approved a contract in November, 1991, to lease a parcel of land at El Morro School to PacTel for $18,000 a year. The tower and its underground components were installed this summer, after PacTel received needed approval from the California Coastal Commission and other agencies.

The parents are primarily concerned about what they believe to be the potential health risks caused by microwave transmissions. The tower stands about 10 yards from classrooms, a computer center and a playground for children in the Head Start program.

Neil Fitzpatrick, director of external affairs for PacTel, said the company is willing to work with the school and parents and stressed that the cellular station is safe.

He added that a microwave dish atop the tower was used for mobile phone communications only during the wildfires in October, when land lines were down. The dish has not been used at any other time since it was built, Fitzpatrick said. Normal land line transmissions do go through the tower, he said.

A consultant hired by the school district told about 150 parents at the meeting last week that there is no evidence to suggest that low levels of microwave radiation around cellular towers cause any harm.

But another consultant contacted by the parents said there could be a link between the transmissions and childhood cancer.

Doug Rowe, a parent of two children at El Morro, said parents aren’t willing to take the chance. “I do not have a grievance with PacTel Cellular and their equipment and their technology,” he said. “I just have a grievance about it on our schoolyard.”

Asked parent Reta Holmback: “Why take the risk for $18,000?”

The tower is PacTel’s only cellular station for mobile phone users between Emerald Bay and Newport Coast Drive, including emergency transmissions, Fitzpatrick said. PacTel has more than 400 cellular phone transmission sites throughout Southern California, including about 20 at school sites, Fitzpatrick said.