Reflections - Microwave Killer Antennas
Document Title: Reflections - Microwave Killer Antennas
Document Ref No: R9706161
First Published: Reflections - TBA
Publication Date: 16th June 1997
Author's Name: Father Shay Cullen, SSC
The raid by the NBI on a night club in Caloocan City earlier this week and the discovery of 43 young girls in prostitution, many of them children, is just the latest example of how widespread the practice is in the Philippines and how the police and other authorities give it such low priority among their concerns.
The club had been raided before but was soon open and thriving again. A black mark of the Police of Caloocan City?
The tough strictures of the R.A 7610 that are framed to prevent and punish those who prostitute children or allow it to happen gives corrupt police a bigger stick to beat bribes out of pimps, paedophile and club operators. < citizens read Isyu and the column and looked around them at the Smart cellular tower right smack in the center of town. They realized the danger that it protested and formed an action committee to have it relocated. The Aliminos government officials were dismayed. They had given a permit for the construction of the tower. Naturally they use Smart phones. Whether they were gifts or bought outright we don't know.
Communications towers operate on microwave systems. Microwaves create strong electromagnetic radiation fields around them and people using a microwave oven for example should put them in a safe place and not stand close to them for any length of time.
There was a town meeting between the Aliminos protesters, officials and representatives from Smart communications a few weeks ago. I was unable to attend but I sent the protest committee a Gauss meter for measuring electromagnetic fields. I advised then to get an electric engineer, bring a microwave oven to the meeting and turn it on. Then they were to move the meter at first close and then further away from the oven and measure the strength of the electromagnetic field. They did this and the gauss meter continued to give a high pitched whine of danger when the meter was within two feet of the microwave oven.
This illustrated to the participants the strength of these invisible radiation waves in household appliances. We know that they are dangerous to health. So how much more dangerous are the powerful radiation fields emitted by cellular phone antenna and the electric power cables, of National Power Corporation or the transformers of Meralco hanging outside your window? Very dangerous indeed if you happen to live near them. Cables, transformers and antenna lower the value of property drastically wherever they are erected. In Olongapo there is my own experience in this. NPC and the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) were erecting power lines for APEC meeting last June 1996.
The pylons were supposed to pass along a straight line. But the NPC bowed to the pressure of The Gordon Family who rule Olongapo and the SBMA and had the cables diverted away from the government land that they are claiming. This cost millions for sure for the extra pylon and the cables.
The cables, because of the danger of radiation would lower the values of that government land that the Gordons claim as their own. When it came to the Children's Home they said the cables were not dangerous and so erected them close by. Of course in the first incident we see government money by the millions apparently going to benefit a private family interest involving alleged grave abuse of position and authority to get personal gain from the NPC and tax payers money.
This, if true, is graft and corruption and a case for the ombudsman. The National Power Corporation president, Guido Delgado, ignored our appeals for the safe route to be used for the sake of the children's home. But until now Delgado has a heart of stone. Sometimes stones, no matter how hard, break and so I pray that Mr. Delgado will change.
We are also invited to speak at the Annual Meeting of the Asian Development Bank alternative NGO conference in Japan this may. We will challenge the NPC 's and ADB's lack of ethical and moral standards in implementing projects.
The expansion of telecommunications is vital to social and economic development but not at any cost. Public safety must be the priority and these antenna and cables must be set apart from human habitation. Several Senators have written to me expressing their concern and support for legislation to set safety margins and protect the public. That legislation will be among the most important that will every be made. It will be resisted by the cellular companies and National Power Corporation who routinely deny any serious danger from power cables and transformers that they erect wherever they want.
The human body, is most vulnerable to these waves of deadly radiation. Around the world there is growing concern, increasing rates of cancers and tumors and a rash of legal cases. Public reaction against them is strong because like the manufactures of cigarettes they deny any danger when it is clear that there is danger. These companies have lied, covered up and threatened those who protest their policies and practices. The public have a right to know and a right to react and protest against these cables and antenna which endanger them and their children.
