What is a safe distance from a cell tower? Our cell phones keep us connected 24 hours a day. But this connection requires more and more cell towers, often in our neighborhoods. Is this safe?
Modern life has required many of us to stay ‘plugged in’ 24 hours a day. While it is amazing to have news, contacts and information at your fingertips, it comes with a cost.
With a constant need to stay connected, companies are building additional cell towers. This is a serious concern, especially if you are familiar with the radiation from cell towers.
With this in mind, you are likely wondering what a safe distance from a cell tower would be. Today, we’re going to dig deeper and discuss different scenarios. Plus, what to do if you get too close.
How Do Cell Towers Expose People to Radio Waves?
Our modern phone habits have us consuming more and more data. Gone are the days when you simply scrolled through social media or read web pages on your phone. Today’s modern user wants to watch videos, TV shows and even movies online while downloading the latest in games and music.
What is 100 gigabytes of data nowadays? Modern games take up so much space, and a hundred-gigabyte smartphone looks pretty cramped.
Thirty years ago, 100 gigabytes were transmitted daily by all people on earth. Fast forward and this transmission took an hour and finally a second. We are consuming more and more and we need to build more and more infrastructure to support it.
More Consumption on Multiple Devices
Fun fact: in 2014, there were two devices with an Internet connection for every person in the world. Today, the number of devices has increased to 2.4. One device is no longer enough for modern life.
However, that number represents the global average, as in some areas like Western Europe and North America the number of devices per person is much higher.
Hence the question, when will it really be enough? After all, we are getting lost more and more on our smartphones.
For example, if a smartphone consumed about 3 GB of traffic per month in 2014, it would be projected to use twice as much in 2025, and in 2030 we can expect to live in a world where everyone will devour 24 gigabytes per month.
We also need to take into consideration the growing number of devices per person. That brings us to numbers as insane as exabytes of data.
For example, 5 years ago we were consuming 5 exabytes a month on mobile devices, in 2019 it was 38 and by 2025 it will quadruple to 160.
In 2014, around 14 billion different devices were connected to the network. You’ve heard it before, but what exactly those devices were is more important: smartphones, PCs, TVs, and most importantly, those types that are called machine-to-machine devices, but for simplicity, call them smart devices.
By smart devices, we mean terminals, ATMs, surveillance and detection systems, navigators, scanners, fitness trackers, and autonomous vehicles. These are devices that connect to cellular networks and can communicate with one another, so to speak.
In 2014, the share of these machines communicating with one another was 24 percent of all internet-connected devices. Four years later, they took about a third, and by 2023 there will be roughly 15 billion of them.
How can the network deal with this situation with no lags and glitches? We need to build more cell towers.
Are Cell Towers Dangerous?
What if cell phone towers violate our energy field and destroy our DNA? A cell phone tower is a hefty mast with antennas that we can use to surf the Internet and make phone calls. From a physical standpoint, these antennas give off electromagnetic energy. In a way, cell towers and microwaves have the same roots as both devices radiate or emit waves.
The similarity between a microwave and a cell tower can be terrifying. And if you add the details that on this cell tower, or more accurately - the base station, directional antennas are installed so that the signal is transmitted to a particular sector, as if it came from an electron gun; then when you sprinkle the whole thing with fantasies about how this radio beam weakens immunity and alters human DNA, making the body vulnerable to viruses, you feel a powerful urge to burn down that tower.
How Do Cell Towers Work?
Let’s see how this infernal machine works. And cut out anything unnecessary so that staunch humanitarians like us understand it.
The base station actually has antennas that send directional signals at 30, 60, or 120 degrees. And so far, it doesn’t seem very safe. But let’s go further. These antennas give off electromagnetic waves that essentially correspond to those of a microwave.
This is also the same as the telephone, computer, Wi-Fi, radio, TV remote control, and even the sun. However, each device sends out waves with different frequencies and wavelengths. The shorter the wave, the higher the frequency of its oscillation.
We measure this oscillation in Hertz. One oscillation per second corresponds to one Hertz. The more Hertz there are, the more oscillations there are; the higher the frequency, the shorter the wave.
Cell towers can give off waves with frequencies from 800MHz to 2600MHz, depending on the network’s generation. This is the icon you see on your mobile phone: EDGE, 3G, 4G, aka LTE, and more recently 5G, all run on different frequencies.
What is a Safe Distance to Live from a Cell Tower?
It is difficult to predict how much radiation you will feel in your home or workplace.
- Different cell locations give off different amounts of radiation.
- Radiation levels from a single cell location also vary, depending on usage at different times of the day.
- Radiation from the same cell tower can be different in different directions.
- Radiation is also influenced by terrain location, shielding, and reflections from buildings.
- Finally, the way your home is built affects its resistance to high-frequency electromagnetic fields.
Also, there may be times when the cell phone tower you know in your neighborhood is not the cell phone tower closest to your home. They often obscure cell sites. And many units are much smaller (but not necessarily less powerful) than the familiar towers and are installed in unexpected places.
So start with a careful study of your surroundings to find all the cell locations. Then use a map to calculate the distance from the location of each cell to your home. If the nearest cellular network is more than 400 meters away, you’re unlikely to be harmed.
Do Cell Phone Towers Cause Health Issues?
Individuals vary in their response to EMF radiation.
For some people, the short-term effects of exposure to cell tower radiation can include sleep disorders, headaches, poor memory, mental agitation, depression, anxiety, confusion, anorexia, and apathy.
A small group of doctors in Bamberg, Germany, conducted their study in 2005. They found more and more serious and minor health issues in patients exposed to higher levels of radiation.
These health issues included diabetes, tumors, inflammatory disease, irregular heartbeats, limb and joint pain, headaches, frequent infections, memory problems, depression, and insomnia.
It would be interesting to know how much more information a well-funded and well-designed government study would reveal!
These doctors found that all types of diseases had a similar pattern: a higher prevalence in patients most exposed to radiation. The American Academy of Environmental Medicine reports that studies show that “there are significant deleterious biological effects from exposure to non-thermal RF,”
Those effects can include reproductive defects, genetic damage, cancer, nervous system dysfunction, and neurological degeneration, cognitive effects, immune system dysfunction, developmental effects, kidney damage, peptide and protein damage.
Do Cell Phone Towers Cause Cancer?
A study by doctors in the German city of Naila followed 1,000 residents who had resided in a locality around two cell towers for ten years.
During the last five years of the study, they discovered that those who lived within 400 meters of the towers had a newly diagnosed cancer rate 3x higher than those living further away. Top of the list was breast cancer, but cancers of the pancreas, prostate, blood, lung, skin melanoma, and colon were all high.
Few studies have specifically focused on cancer risk from cell towers. This lack of studies is concerning, particularly since there is so much anecdotal evidence.
For instance, in 1994, in a case known as Towers of Doom, two cell phone towers were installed in a 5-story apartment building in London. Residents complained of numerous health problems in the following years. Seven of them were diagnosed with cancer. The cancer rate among residents on the top floor (closest to the tower) was ten times the national average.
Even the World Health Organization has admitted that high-frequency radiation can cause cancer.
If cell phone towers are causing cancer, this is expected to occur after several years of exposure, as the damage from radiation exposure builds up over time.
Cancer only occurs when all the body’s repair and defense mechanisms are overwhelmed and exhausted. During these years, this radiation has subjected our bodies to daily stress.
How to Reduce Radiation Exposure from Cell Towers
If you have no choice but to live close to a cell phone tower, or if there is nothing you can do to minimize the distance between you and the tower, you will need to find other ways to reduce your exposure to electromagnetic radiation.
Although the long-term health effects of exposure to EMF radiation are not yet known, this is one more reason to take preventive measures. So if you live near a cell phone tower, try some of these tips to reduce your exposure to potentially harmful electromagnetic radiation.
Reduce the Exposure Time
It may seem obvious, but reducing the time you spend near your cell phone will do wonders.
For instance, if you are working close to a mobile tower, see if you can move to another side of the building within the office. Of course, this option may not be very practical in your home, but you can do it the other way around. This means you can plan your home so that the rooms you use the least are closer to the cell phone tower, while the rooms you use frequently should be on the other side of your house.
Buy EMF Protection Products
There are many EMF protection products you can purchase for the home, from GeoClense: EMF and Earth Radiation Harmoniser, Phone Radiation EMF Protection to Bamboo Orgone Blankets. If you install some in your home, the measured EMF radiation levels should be very different. It is best to focus on the side of the house closest to the cell phone tower. Since radio waves are approaching you from a downward angle, you also need to take care of your ceiling. Not only will this be a major source of EMF radiation, but under the roof is a great place to hide tough EMF shielding materials.
Another viable option is Bamboo Orgone Blankets for your bed. Because when you work, you probably spend most of your time in bed at home. So it makes a lot more sense to focus on protecting your bed than trying to protect the entire side of the house.
