The Fauquier County School Board is considering a proposal by Milestone Towers to place a 150-foot cell phone tower at Liberty High School in Bealeton, which is adjacent to Grace Miller Elementary School as well. Milestone is also considering other Fauquier County Public School locations, including Kettle Run High School.  

Liberty High and Fauquier County Public Schools are the latest of the rising number of schools and districts targeted by cell phone tower companies across the United States. There are safer and more appropriate placements for this infrastructure, and it is deeply troubling that these companies completely disregard the welfare of children at school to place these towers on school properties.

In response to this alarming trend, states and localities are taking protective measures due to emerging questions of biological safety, especially for children. For example, Michigan drafted House Bill 4499 to prevent the placement of cell towers and cellular equipment within 1,500 feet of schools and school grounds, Temecula Valley Unified School District adopted a resolution prohibiting cell phone towers on school grounds and a 1,500 foot setback near any school site, and Detroit parents prompted a safety study request due to the proliferation of cell phone towers on schools. 

The fact is, there is not one study showing that wireless technology is safe, yet there is a great deal of mounting scientific evidence demonstrating negative biological and environmental impacts from the microwave radiation emitted from these towers at levels at or below the current FCC allowable guidelines.

In August of 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit ordered the FCC to review its allowable radiofrequency (RF) exposure guidelines which have not been updated in over 26 years and are widely considered to be un-protective and obsolete. This order was based in part on 11,000 pages of documented evidence showing biological and environmental harms; which included a statement from the American Academy Of Pediatrics.

The health and safety of our children should be paramount, especially considering this radiation has not been proven safe for children under any circumstances. Read more on the biological impacts of wireless radiation below.         

We urge the Fauquier County School Board to:

1) Employ the precautionary principle and find safer placements for these cell towers. Prioritize our children's well-being and the proven risks of wireless technology over potentially unsafe technological convenience and revenue.

2) Hear from independent experts regarding the risks of exposing children to continuous microwave radiation prior to making a decision that will have a lasting impact on our schools and district - potentially entering FCPS into 30-year legally binding contracts to house possibly unsafe cellular infrastructure.

3) Block this and future proposed school installations with protective policy and safer solutions for the sake of current students as well as future generations who will attend Liberty High School and other schools within the county. 

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Find more information on wireless biological harms, especially to children, and the risks of wireless radiation, including from cell phone towers, at the links below: 

• On March 15, 2024, The Environmental Health Trust wrote the FCPS Board a formal letter on cell phone tower radiation and children's health, which included a scientific briefing on the latest peer reviewed science, and the latest peer reviewed published review on cell tower radiation (2022). 
   
• The fact is that thousands of independent scientists, doctors, nurses, engineers, and a host of other professionals worldwide, as well as organizations such as the Environmental Health Trust, Americans for Responsible Technology, Children's Health Defense, BioInitiative 2012, and Physicians for Safe Technology, all agree that wireless radiation can have deleterious health effects.
   
• The most common symptoms of overexposure to RFR in children that are well documented by many peer-reviewed independently funded studies are:
  • Neuropsychiatric (behavioral) effects anxiety, depression, brain fog, and cognitive impairment
  • Nausea
  • Autism
  • Hyperactivity - ADHD
  • Childhood leukemia
  • Brain tumors
  • Diabetes
  • Prenatal effects
  • Insomnia
  • Bloody noses  
  • Headaches  
     
• Insurance Companies rate Radio Frequency Radiation (RFR) electromagnetic field exposures as "high risk" and exclude coverage of any harm or property loss from RFR as an industry standard in general liability insurance policies. The biggest insurance companies in the world, such as Lloyds of London and Swiss Re, refuse to insure any of these cellular facilities for RFR injury or harm due to existing concerns regarding potential negative health effects from electromagnetic fields (EMF) likely increasing, resulting in an uptick in liability claims with potentially long-term consequence.
   
• The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) of the World Health Organization classifies radiofrequency electromagnetic fields as possibly carcinogenic to humans (based on an increased risk for glioma, a malignant type of brain cancer); in the same category as lead.
   
• In 2018, The National Toxicology Program (NTP) at the National Institutes of Health found clear evidence that long-term exposure to RF radiation from cell phones was associated with malignant schwannomas (cancer), an association with gliomas (brain tumor) and adrenal tumors, and marked increases in DNA damage in the prefrontal cortex, blood cells, and hippocampus (of mice and rats). According to the principal designer of the study, Dr. Ronald Melnick, "...we can no longer assume that any current or future wireless technology, including 5G, is safe without adequate testing."
   
• A study conducted by scientists at the Ramazzini Institute in Italy on far field (cell tower/base station) effects of RF radiation support the findings of the NTP studies. They concluded that, "The RI findings on far field exposure to RFR are consistent with and reinforce the results of the NTP study on near field exposure, as both reported an increase in the incidence of tumors of the brain and heart in RFR-exposed Sprague-Dawley rats. These experimental studies provide sufficient evidence to call for the re-evaluation of IARC conclusions regarding the carcinogenic potential of RFR in humans."
   
• As Joel M. Moskowitz, PhD points out, we have no reason to believe any of this is safe, and we hope the Fauquier County School Board is open to hearing from individuals outside of the telecommunications industry in order to make a decision that is in the best interest of children.

 

• Stories about Cancer clusters at Ripon Elementary from Sprint Cell Phone Tower: https://tinyurl.com/Ripon-cell-tower; https://youtu.be/L716FpdsyuQ
   
• Story about Cancer clusters at SDSU: https://christianobserver.net/san-diego-state-university-brain-cancer-cluster-from-cell-tower/

 

• List of links for information from independent, non-industry funded sources regarding wireless technology: 
  • Paper on RFR Risks to Children
  • Classroom RF Microwave Radiation Counter
  • EHTrust.org
  • TechSafeSchools.org
  • ChildrensHealthDefense.org
  • VirginiansforSafeTech.org
  • Americans for Responsible Technology Treasure Chest of Quotes and Excerpts
  • Generation Zapped Documentary
  • Captured Agency: How the FCC is Dominated by the Industries It Presumably Regulates, Norm Alster
  • How Big Wireless Made Us Think Cell Phones Are Safe
  • How the FCC Shields Cell Phone Companies from Safety Concerns
  • The Dangers of 5G to Children's Health