CountryPlans Forum

Hello Everyone, 

I am new here, and already I am asking for your opinion. 

My husband's mother has 80 acres of undeveloped land in Northwest Arkansas.  Wow.  She has graciously offered us the land and told us we could develop and build a house on it if we wish.  Double Wow!  We have been so excited since we received this news, and we have been doing a lot of planning and research about what we need to do to start making our home in the woods. 

However, during our recent scouting missions and research, we discovered that a very large cell tower is located adjacent to our land.  From what I understand, recent studies have linked increased occurrences of cancer to people who live near cell towers.  I cannot tell you how sad--actually devastated--I am.  Ugh!  We have dreamed of owning our own home for a long, long, long time, but financially, it has just been out of our reach.  Now, just when things seemed to be working out, we get this news.  Ugh!  I want to cry. 

My questions are:

What, if anything, do you all know or think about living near cell towers?

Is it worth it to invest lots of $$ in a property that could be a health hazard?

Anyway, thanks for listening. 

Kelly

I'm not sure what the "danger zone" is around cell towers.. I'm sure the so-called experts would say you're perfectly fine at 100' or something. I'd tend to be a lot more cautious, but I'm not sure what a good safe distance would be. You might want to do some more research on it.. 80 acres should give you a building site at least 1/2 mile away or so, right?

Thanks for your reply, Ernest! I really appreciate your response.  Yes, I agree, we need to do more research, but from what I have read so far, it doesn't look good for us  :(

I guess we will go back to the drawing board and keep trying to put together enough money to buy some land, but that sure is tough to do these days, and I feel like we have already been waiting so long.  Sigh. Well, hopefully some day soon, we will find something affordable.

Thanks, again, for your help.
Kelly

Maybe you could put something in the walls to sheild you from the radiation? You could spend some $$ if you get the land free and you would still be ahead.

That's a great idea! Thanks, Bob S. for thinking of it and posting.  I wonder if there is something I could put in the walls to protect from radiation? Anyone have any thoughts on this? Meanwhile, I will do some research on the subject.  Thanks again, Bob and Ernest!

KR ;D

If you use a mobile phone - you are already radiated !

Maybe some more research required but as far as I know the only radiation they put out as such is the microwave link to the next tower which is directional

It may connect to more than one, other than that they are passive.

30 acres should give you enough distance to be happier - out of line of site even better

Look arround your local town - there are cell towers everywhere !

yet people seem to manage to live next door to them

I am more concerned about my cell phone than towers.  I really have not seen any studies on towers.  Can you post some links?
 

Here are a few links that point out dangers.  There are, of course, plenty of other sources that argue that cell towers are harmless.  I don't know what to think, but the links that follow are alarming.

http://www.eastcountymagazine.org/cell_phone_towers_238

http://cellphones.procon.org/view.resource.php?resourceID=003767

http://www.emf-health.com/articles-celltower.htm

http://www.treehuggersofamerica.org/Cell_Phone_Towers.php

I'll look for more information as well as some counter claims this week.  Thanks for reading.

KR

Thanks for the links.  Certainly stuff to be aware of.  One thing to think about after reading some of this how many feet is this cell phone tower set back from your proposed property line?  An eighty acres if taken from a sq mile is one quarter of a mile by one half mile.  I would locate my home and out buildings as far away as possible.  Yet if this is going to be farm ground you would certainly spend time close to the tower.  However that said how many other towers do you work by and not know it?  Do you live by one now and not know it?

   



   

I've wondered about EMF but the quick answer is that we live our lives bathed in this spectrum nowadays. The cellphone by my ear, trying for all its worth to make connection on rural sites is probably the greater risk. These risks are all relative and can only be weighed by you. If it causes you worry, that is probably the greater risk. I built for one client under the high tension lines of the power company. I was worried and asked how he felt about it as he worked for the power company. He was unconcerned and they have raised their family there in the 20 years since. There are no definitive answers now so it is a personal choice. If it proves to be a major concern we will end up moving to other methods and the towers will be replaced by our next newest idea. I worked around chloridane, arsenic, formaldehyde and asbestos and ... back in the day. The best we can do is learn and try to improve when we find problems. On the way we are our own guinea pigs.

It's true, we definitely are our own guinea pigs. The bottom line is that we do not know if cell towers cause problems or not.  There is some evidence showing that they do, but there is also evidence showing that they do not.  I just wish that this particular cell tower were somewhere else instead of right next to the prime building spot on our land.  However, we can't change things, so we just have to work with what we have.  Maybe after a few years on the land, we could afford to buy a different place that is no where near a cell tower.

Anyway, thanks to everyone who replied.  I'll let you all know how things work out.
8)
Kelly

I read the actual scientific studies.  The greatest conclusion they could come to was there was a possibility of cancer causing which put it as high a risk as coffee.  We have been living with them for most of our lives (at least those born in the 80's).  I don't know how much of those studies are showing more of correlation than causation.  Remember the vast majority of cell towers are in large urban environments with people likely to be exposed to massive other amounts of pollution and poor lifestyle choices.  Saying that people close to them have an increased rate of cancer could have a lot of causes. I tend to discount most articles as soon as they start with a huge government cover up.  The third link is a complete joke.  They just happen to be selling devices that magically combat a problem they are telling you about.  I wonder if they sell bridges too. Most articles seem to agree the holding the RF to your head is probably more dangerous than the tower. I'm a bit of a skeptic. The same could be said about all radio towers. (cell phones are just two way radios)  Hold on, where is my foil hat?  d*

I would think it would effect the migration of birds.... :o

If you put  a metal roof on the house and foil faced foam in the wall system towards the tower, you will cut down on a lot of the signal.  I can see 2 towers from my house and have so-so reception because of the envelope of foil in our home.  The windows are Hurd with a metal film that cuts down on UV and I'm guessing it also abosrbs RF.

My take is there are a lot more hazards in the world than cell phone towers.  If its wide open space you seek and peace and quiet, I say go for it.  You never know what hazard will come up next and no matter where you are eminent domain prevails.  Why not take a chance to have your dream.  At least thats my two cents.