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Kerry's Story: 

Living 18 feet from a T-Mobile cell tower

My six year-old daughter and I were living on the top floor of the Skyline Gateway Apartments when T-Mobile decided to do a “5G upgrade” to its cell tower on the roof.  The tower was almost right on top of my apartment—just 18 feet from my bedroom.  After the upgrade my daughter started to have headaches, sinus and ear infections, and sleep problems. She was having a hard time learning at school.  I also had headaches and troubles sleeping, constant sinus infections, and after a while I started to feel dizzy in my apartment.  One morning I woke up feeling like I was bruised all over.  The cell tower made whooping noises on and off all night in my bedroom. 

My neighbors were telling me they were having symptoms too, and one felt so bad in her apartment that she already moved out (she was the one living right under the tower).

My neighbors and I tried to get help from the apartment management and from Pima County officials, but they all said they couldn’t help us.  I wanted to move but the property management wouldn’t let me break the contract and I didn’t have enough money to pay it off. 

 

Finally I called Lisa Smith, who is a Building Biologist at EMF Wellness Tucson, and she showed me sympathy and understanding.  She knew exactly what might be going on, but said she would need to test before coming to any conclusions.  I felt relieved. She came over with her meters and carefully measured the Radio Frequency radiation in every room of my apartment.  She said it was very high and unsafe (up to 616,000 microwatts per meter squared), way above the legal radiation limits in other countries like France,  Switzerland, Russia and China.  The highest amount of radiation was in my daughter’s room, which was very upsetting.  Lisa told me that since we couldn’t shield from the radiation we should move out immediately.

In her report she included a photo of a sign posted on the facility “Guidelines for Working in Radiofrequency Environments”.   It says people who are close to a cell tower antenna should have  (1) electromagnetic energy awareness training; (2) not stop in front of an antenna; and (3) use personal RF monitors while near antennas.”  Why wasn’t I told about these precautions when I was living under the antennas, spending hours every day and night close to them?

 

I told the property management about the radiation assessment, and they finally agreed to let me move to another apartment building they own.  Lisa checked and there was no cell tower on the roof of that building.  After we moved our symptoms slowly went away, and we are now happily settled into our new home.  We are very grateful Lisa came to help us and my daughter can grow up in a clean environment.

 

Kerry, Catalina Foothills, Tucson AZ

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