Is the 4G internet tower harmful for health?

arunkumarmna

Hi Friends,

One of the ISP from India is requesting my permission to place the 4G wifi broadband tower on my building [Residence]. I got families, kids and a pregnant lady staying in the building. I am worried will the microwave or radio wave radiation may question their health.

Could you please suggest?

Thank you
Arunkumar

jedishrfu

Here's a health and wifi report from Canada:

http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hl-vs/iyh-vsv/prod/wifi-eng.php

basically there's no conclusive evidence that they are harmful, but people will still fear being nearthem.

Some years ago there was similar concern with high voltage wires. Farmers knew that you could get a static discharge near them and so didn't want them too close.

http://www.ehow.com/about_5436427_ef...es-towers.html

arunkumarmna

Thank you Jedishrfu, ...wifi-eng.php link states no harm with the wifi devices used in the public areas like in-house transmitters like routers with small radius antena but gives the generic statement from the closed thread "http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=419790&highlight=Wifi+Sector+antenna+health+hazard" there is a possibility of generic/serious health issues depends on the distance from the source.

i am worried because it will be like a base station with tower of multiple sector antennas right above the roof [less than 1 meter if i am not wrong].

jedishrfu

Personally, I don't think there's a problem because the energy emanated is too low in frequency and in strength to be able to affect any chemical bonds in your body unlike nuclear radiation and that there may be a lot of other external factors in your own environment that could be more harmful such as cleaning agents or rugs made from formaldihyde, certain kinds of plastics like BPA...

Also these health studies are fraught with politics as the industry tries to influence them and the science is so longterm and statistics based that we just dont know what to think so we fear new things.

phion

Do television towers cause cancer? Radio stations?

These RF bands are extremely low, the average phone might transmit approximately one watt of energy at most. No where near enough to break those delicate strands of DNA.

NeoDevin

No, there is no evidence of any risk of health problems from such a station.

The risk you should be worried about is the perception of uneducated people, who may avoid your building because of irrational fears of such things, thus lowering the value of your property.

Monique

This would be of interest to you: http://www.who.int/peh-emf/about/Wha...en/index1.html

berkeman

There is a general confusion in this thread that needs to be cleared up. The OP is asking about a high-power transmitting antenna farm being put on the roof of a residence, not about 1W cell phones.

Monique -- Unless I missed it, the article that you linked to seems to only address the use of personal RF devices and HV power transmission lines, not exposure to high-power RF transmitters in close proximity. (I may have missed it though, if so please correct me)

I personally would not go for the high-power cell phone antennas on top of my residence. I will try to do a bit more reading to see what frequency bands are in the picture and get back to this thread. Please let us confine our posts in this thread to the question of high-power transmitting antennas in the 4G frequency band in close proximity to people living in a residence.

berkeman

Looks like the 4G frequencies are in the microwave oven band. No, I absolutely would not put a high-power antenna farm on the roof of my residence in the microwave band.

http://vspages.com/4g-vs-wifi-the-di...-and-wifi-902/

berkeman

As a follow-up... It would be much worse to be the next-door-neighbor to a house with a WiFi antenna farm on its roof, compared to being the house right underneath it.

Quiz Quesion -- Why?

Cell phone / Wifi antenna farms should be on masts, located well above ground level. That helps to keep the ground-level RF exposure (to microwave oven frequencies) more safe:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell_site

.

marcusl

A clarification: WiFi is not 4G, but WiMax is and so is GSM/LTE. In India, 4G is being rolled out at 2300 MHz which is very close to the microwave oven band.

phion

I have a terrible habit of not reading the OP, however I can safely say after using 4G via Sprint for over a year nothing detrimental happened.

Other than causing TV interference, I'm not convinced the higher frequency of 4G is of much concern with an antenna on top of the building. At least there just simply isn't enough research out there right now to convince me otherwise.