Mobile phone base stations: radio waves and health
The strength of the radio waves from base station antennas reduces rapidly with increasing distance and the levels at locations where the public can be exposed tend to be small.
It is also difficult to predict a safe distance from cell towers. For example, cell towers are designed to transmit most of their radio frequency (RF) energy horizontally. Some areas below the tower may have lower levels than locations farther away that are more in line with the vertical height of the antennas.
The business structure of the communication tower industry presents additional challenges to ensuring employee safety. When carriers own their own towers and directly employ the employees who build and maintain the towers and the equipment on them, the carriers have the ability and incentive to ensure safe practices.
In the case of cellular and PCS cell site transmitters, the FCC's RF exposure guidelines recommend a maximum permissible exposure level to the general public of approximately 580 microwatts per square centimeter.
While regulatory bodies like the FCC and ICNIRP maintain that exposure levels are safe, independent researchers argue that long-term effects remain uncertain. A German study examined nearly 1,000 residents living within 400 meters of a cell tower for over 10 years.
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