Defends position of MAC on cell phone antenna

Defends position of MAC on cell phone antenna

In your Aug. 28 editorial, "MAC members should stop being bureaucrats," about the only thing you got right is that the Municipal Advisory Council (MAC) is there to serve the public of Oak Park.

MAC members were concerned that two antennas (an AT&T antenna was installed in the church tower last year without anybody in Oak Park knowing about it) at the church would put an undo health burden on the very young children at the grammar school across the street from the antennas. They would be exposed to radiation about six hours a day, five days a week, for about nine months a year for about six years.

That’s a lot of radiation for young children to absorb.

There is very little information or studies about antenna radiation on very young children or on the unborn, although in a recent German study they found an elevated risk of eye cancer when exposed to cell phone levels of electromagnetic radiation. This is the same radiation radiating from the antennas. The MAC took the position to err on the side of safety and asked that Cingular Wireless bring their radiation expert to the August MAC meeting to give us insight on the danger of radiation on children. They said they would, but as you know, they did not come to this meeting. We also asked them to send a letter to all parents of children who go to Oak Hills Elementary School to inform them of their antenna. They would not do this. We informed them that we had no objection to an antenna in Oak Park and we would find them a sight equal or better than what they were proposing. They chose to ignore this and go behind our back and go to the county and get their permit.

Ventura County did nothing to help Oak Park. They would not allow us to protest their decision to give us time to evaluate any health hazard even though we promised to pay their $2,000 fee for a protest. All we wanted to do was to protect our residents from undo harm.

I hope this clarifies what happened.

Ron Stark

Oak Park

Stark serves on the Oak Park Municipal Advisory Council. He also serves on the board of directors of a water agency that wanted the cell phone antenna to be located near one of its water storage facilities.