Baseless Fear Over Cell Tower

Editor,

As an Old Top of the World resident, I strongly support the proposed cellular tower at the fire station, which will improve cellular coverage and bring in revenue for the city.

Last week, I noticed a woman bouncing around the middle of Alta Laguna handing out leaflets, which turned out to be an anonymous attack on the proposal. This woman placed herself in more danger from the crazed parents rushing their children to school than would be posed by a lifetime of exposure to the tower.

Studies of risk perception show that unfamiliar risks like invisible radiation evoke far more fear than familiar ones such as speeding Subarus driven by yuppies with cellphones glued to their ears. Irrational, but true.

A review of the leaflet itself shows it to be full of pseudoscientific mumbo-jumbo, without a single citation or reference. Radiation from a fixed source declines in intensity as the square of the distance from the source. Courts have routinely rejected pseudoscientific testimony that cellphones and towers pose a significant risk to human health. (The city is not entitled to consider these claims because of federal law, but this baseless fear, in fact, appears to motivate the protestors).

It is to be hoped that our council will give short shrift to this crackpot nimbyism, but in Laguna Beach, of course, you never know.

David G. Epstein

Laguna Beach