Groups urge action on cell tower safety

Safety regulations covering U.S. cellphone towers are obsolete and should be updated, three health and environmental advocate groups say. Citizens for Health, the American Academy of Environmental Medicine and the EMF advocacy group, ElectromagneticHealth.org, are urging people to contact their Congressional representatives to request the Federal Communications Commission update its cell tower safety laws. The FCC must establish new safety guidelines for cell towers, WiFi and cellphones to reflect current science suggesting harm to human health, wildlife and nature, the groups said in a release Tuesday. "Beyond the strong evidence for an association between wireless radiation with cancer, there is increasing evidence for effects on the brain and behavior -- effects on memory ability, on IQ, on learning ability," David Carpenter, director of the Institute for Health and Environment, said. "This is an urgent public health issue and citizens must insist government respond to the present evidence in an expedited manner to protect the public health."