Being exposed to chronic irradiation from a cell tower is not a good idea
Being exposed to chronic irradiation from a cell tower is not a good idea anyway, but to put the antennas on water towers is particularly bad because of the risk of electromagnetic contamination of the water. Treating water with weak pulsed electromagnetic radiation is the basis of many commercial “electronic water conditioners”, which are now widely used to remove and prevent lime scale in plumbing.
But it also has biological effects. Brief exposure of the water to such fields (as when it flows through a conditioner) and supplying it to yeast, plants and farm animals can, stimulate their growth. However, when we tested exposures of more than about a minute (as it might be in a water storage tank with an antenna attached), we found that it inhibited the growth of yeast and was arguably harmful (See Goldsworthy et al. 1999 “Biological effects of physically conditioned water”. Water Research 33 (7) 1618-1626). [ http://omega.twoday.net/stories/3705478/ ]
The mechanism of the conditioning effect is controversial, but it appears to depend on the presence of colloidal impurities, and not all water supplies are equally affected. Its biological effect is probably because it removes structurally-important calcium ions from cell membranes in much the same way as it removes lime scale from plumbing. This would then make them leak and affect metabolism in the same way as direct exposure to electromagnetic fields (See http://tinyurl.com/28Lo82 ).
In so much as water treated with pulsed electromagnetic radiation can have unusual and sometimes harmful biological effects, there should be a moratorium on placing cell phone antennas on water tanks until electromagnetically treated water has received full FDA approval.
- Posted by: Andrew Goldsworthy
http://www.newsli.com/2007/12/05/long-island-residents-cell-towers-act-like-other-villages/