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Local Communities Act of 2019. This legisla- tion would overturn FCC regulations that limit the ability of local governments to regulate the deployment of 5G wireless infrastructure. HR 530 would provide “that certain actions by the Federal Communications Commission shall have no force or effect.”16
HB 530 currently provides our best chance of voiding the FCC rules that prohibit munici- palities from enacting moratoria on 5G. As of April 25, 2019, the bill, which protects state and municipal authority to make land use decisions and manage public rights-of-way, has forty-six co-sponsors.17
SIGNAGE ABOUT RF EMISSIONS Antennas that emit RF radiation, including 5G small cell sites, must comply with Occupa- tional Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and FCC safety guidelines.18,19 However, several people familiar with federal regulations told me that telecom service providers’ obligations to follow OSHA and FCC regulations operate entirely by the honor system—there is no OSHA
or FCC oversight.
Language in a recent agreement between a
city and a telecom provider states that “Caution sign text must specify that a distance of nine feet must be kept from the antenna. . . .The sign will inform the person of the potential for high exposure levels and provide a phone number to call and arrange for power to be removed from the antennas for the duration of work.” There are two things to note with regard to this language. First, such a sign addresses electricians, tree pruners, roofers and others who might work near antennas, but it does not address children playing near a backyard utility pole, pregnant women, people with medical implants or indi- viduals whose offices, bedrooms or kitchens might be within nine feet of said antenna. Sec- ond, there is no federal agency with a budget or a staff dedicated to monitoring RF emissions or enforcing protective signage.
Could municipalities “force” telecom corporations to post the notices that OSHA and FCC regulations require? Before telecoms deploy 5G small cell sites, concerned citizens might consider banding together with electri-
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cians, tree pruners, roofers and other workers to urge their municipality to insist that tele- com providers post signs—readable from a distance—that advise workers to keep at least nine feet from the antenna(s); provide a phone number to call when workers need the antennas turned off so that they can work within levels deemed safe by OSHA; and note the antenna’s frequency and wattage. The goal here is to pro- tect workers before they are exposed to EMR emissions at levels prohibited by OSHA and FCC. Signage might also increase public aware- ness of the antennas’ EMR emissions.
Even in the absence of any regulations to protect vulnerable groups such as children or pregnant women, requiring signage that alerts workers to EMR emissions should be within a municipality’s legal limits. If a municipality opts not to require signage to protect workers from a telecom provider, that’s an attention- grabbing story.
In 2013, well before 5G, the underwriter A.M. Best Company estimated that two hundred and fifty thousand workers come into close contact with cellular antennas every year. It warned other insurers that at close range, cel- lular antennas act “essentially as open micro- wave ovens,” and that health effects in exposed workers “can include eye damage, sterility and cognitive impairments.”20 The president of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Work- ers (IBEW), Edwin Hill, wrote in a September 11, 2013 comment to the FCC, “We believe that many of our members have been exposed to levels of RF radiation in excess of the FCC limits.” Hill further stated, “When there is a hazard, the hazard creator has a duty to warn others against the hazard.”21 He suggested that telecom corporations that are licensed to deploy transmitting antennas should be responsible for ensuring that IBEW members “know the unique physical boundaries at every work location so as not to exceed the referenced RF exposure limits.”
Concerned citizens might also urge their zoning and land use officers to insist that tele- com service providers remeasure RF emissions if or when they change the antennas’ RF trans- missions—as FCC regulations require—and
Wise Traditions
Telecom service providers’ obligations to follow OSHA and FCC regulations operate entirely by the honor system.
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