Verizon Wireless withdrew its application to build
a cell-phone antenna in Point Reyes Station Monday, bowing to pressure
from townspeople with fears ranging from genetic mutation to legions
of cell phone-wielding "zombies."
Customers of Verizon, one of the largest wireless
network carriers in the country, at present don’t get cell-phone
service in the towns around Tomales Bay. One of Verizon’s competitors,
Cingular Wireless, provides isolated patches of coverage broken up by
West Marin’s hilly landscape; the best-known of these spots may
be the sidewalk in front of the Bovine Bakery in Point Reyes Station’s
downtown, where locals and tourists alike gather to field calls.
Since Verizon announced its desire to expand coverage
into Point Reyes Station last spring, the company has faced a flurry
of opposition from locals who object to the construction of an antenna
in their backyard. Verizon spokeswoman Heidi Flato said this week that
after receiving letters protesting the project, the company had decided
to relent – for now.
"It’s our utmost goal to be a good neighbor,"
Flato said. "It turns out we did receive a number of letters from
members of the community who objected to that site."
Flato added, however, that Verizon is already scouting
out new sites in the area. County planners criticized the proposed location
– on the four-acre property of Carol Horick just below the North
Marin Water District tanks in Point Reyes Station – because it
was in the middle of a residential neighborhood. Some residents said
they objected to the antenna primarily because it would be near their
houses.
Cell-phone ‘zombies’
But a new location may not allay the underlying concerns
of some in town who fear that full cell-phone coverage would disrupt
the slow pace of life in rural Point Reyes Station.
"We are a little quieter, a little simpler out
here," town resident Cynthia Clarkson said. "When I go to
the grocery store, I see people that I know and we stop and say hello.
If everybody’s on cell phones you don’t have that. It’s
a bunch of zombies walking around."
Clarkson, 56, said she was nostalgic for a time when
communications technology didn’t eat into every waking hour.
"When I was growing up, you never saw a telephone
anywhere except in the kitchen," she said. "If you saw a telephone
in the bathroom," she added, "you knew it was a bookie. The
only people who needed to be available all the time were people who
placed bets. Everybody else had some time off."
Others worry that EMF radiation from cell phone antennae
could be dangerous. Point Reyes Station photographer Marty Knapp said
that human DNA is damaged by cell phones’ radio waves, which he
called "the current pollution of our time."
Radiation fears unfounded?
Chet Seligman of Point Reyes Station dismissed worries
about adverse health effects from EMF radiation as "totally ridiculous."
Seligman, a network engineer who has lived in West Marin for 33 years,
pointed out that radiation of the kind emitted by cell phones surrounds
us already.
"Your microwave oven emits EMF," Seligman
said. "You are bathed in EMF."
In fact, Seligman said, cordless "land-line"
telephones of the kind many use in their homes emit stronger signals
than cell phones because of the inverse-square law, by which a radio
wave diminishes in strength the farther it travels.
A website run by the Food and Drug Administration
states that cell phones emit a low-energy radio wave, known as non-ionizing
radiation, that is safe within reasonable limits. It is ionizing radiation,
such as x-rays and gamma rays – the kind associated with nuclear
power plants – that is powerful enough to knock electrons out of
their atomic orbit, causing genetic problems in living organisms.
Scientists from the International Commission on Non-Ionizing
Radiation Protection, an organization working in cooperation with the
World Health Organization, state in a report on EMF that evidence linking
the low-frequency radiation to cancer is "unconvincing."
Verizon eyes West Marin
Verizon spokeswoman Flato said that her company plans
to bring service to West Marin as part of a larger expansion into uncovered
areas. Verizon has spent $600 million this year in California alone
on the "build-out and enhancement of its network," she noted,
and $5 billion last year nationwide. Some 12 miles east of Point Reyes
Station, construction is now set to begin on an antenna in the town
of Nicasio that was approved by county planners in September.
Planner Tom Lai said that, were Verizon representatives
to reapply for permits, they should consider situating the antenna on
a ranch. "That might be a good start – to look at these larger,
less-developed properties," he said.
Seligman said that it’s only a matter of time
before a younger generation demands more cell phone antennae in West
Marin.
"Who are the people who buy the iPods, video
games, are on the Internet? The demographic that lives by telecommunications
eventually will be dominant."
Clarkson took a dimmer view of that prospect.
"It certainly is the march of technology,"
she said. "It’s the march of unnecessary technology."