09-18-1996 - Laserfiche WebLink

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1 0 Radio Transmission and Public Health A PCS Perspective Personal Communications Services(PCS)is simply an extension of your ordinary telephone service and other forms of communication that use radio waves instead of wires to transmit and receive phone calls, paging signals and other types of communications. PCS signals are designed for broadcast toward the horizon with a well-focused pattern that attempts to cover a broad geographic area.This design results in very weak signals below the antennas where people work and live.In addition,nearly all PCS facilities are located high above the ground on rooftops or sides of large structures or on freestanding monopoles. This means the possibility of direct interaction with the antennas is very limited and unlikely. Public exposure to PCS frequencies is not new.The frequency band used by PCS is a basic part of the electromagnetic spectrum that has been re-allocated by the Federal Communications Commission(FCC) for PCS.In fact,the power used by AM/FM stations,TV and local airport air traffic control systems are sub- stantially greater than that used by PCS. What About"EMF"? "EMF" is the shorthand term for"electromagnetic force:' EMF exists around any magnet or electrical appliance,and everywhere on earth from nature.Scientifically unconfirmed,but often-heard negative talk • about EMF involves the intense voltages and magnetic fields around high-tension power lines(carrying tens or hundreds of thousands of volts and corresponding huge current flows)and,to a lesser extent, those generated by the high-voltage electron guns in video tubes of TVs and computers.PCS involves no overhead lines,no wattages greater than a reading Tamp at the towers(or greater than a kevchain penlight at the handsets), and no video circuits. Safety Standards The safety of PCS and similar frequency fields has been evaluated by a number of professional scientific organizations and government agencies in the United States and around the world including the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers(IEEE);the American National Standards Institute(ANSI),an independent organization that oversees development of standards including those that apply to PCS; and the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurement(NCRP),a Congressionally • chartered institution. PCS antenna facilities,by design and operation,are low-power devices.This fact combined with the rapid drop-off of energy with distance means that even when all channels are operating at full power(a rare circumstance during routine operation),public exposure is never more than 1,000 times lower than current safety standards. It should be noted that the current ANSI and NCRP standards are set 50 times below a level the scientific community believes may pose a health risk to people.Thus,because exposure at a typical PCS site is 1,000 times lower than current safety standards,each site has a safety margin of more than 50,000.