Cell phone firm says antenna safe

A proposal by an O’ahu wireless mobile communication provider to install a 120-foot antenna and equipment near the old Waimea mill will be unveiled at a Kaua’i County Planning Commission hearing next week.

If approved, the project would enable VoiceStream Wireless, a digital global service mobile service, to expand its coverage for cell phone users on the island.

Voice Stream also could lease pole space to its competitors, including Sprint, Verizon Wireless and AT& T.

VoiceStream representatives are to make their presentation before the commission at Lihu’e Civic Center at 1:30 p.m.

Dec. 12.

But the commission should vote down the project because people could develop cancer from electromagnetic field radiation rays that will come from the pole, said Masao Takeuchi, who lives within a half-mile of the project site.

If approved, the project would be developed on the mountain side of Kuhio on the western edge of Waimea town.

“The high tension wires would put out radiation. It is bad,” said Takeuchi, a retired county employee. “I am 80 years old, I have emphysema and am home-cared. I voice my concerns because I worry about young people.” If it is to be built, it should be put in some “non-populated area like Mana, Koke’e, further in the canefields between Waimea and Kekaha or between Kaumakani and Pakala in the canefields,” Takeuchi told the county in a letter.

But no studies have shown conclusively electromagnetic field radiation causes cancer, said Roy Irei, development manager for VoiceStream.

“It is only a theory,” Irei said.

Before the pole can be built, it would have to meet the approval of the Federal Communications Commission, Irei said.

Researchers have looked into whether the radiation from cell phones, cordless telephones, microwaves, household appliances or overhead transmission lines pose a danger to humans.

Researchers say melatonin, a hormone in the body, removes free radicals – highly damaging chemicals in the body – from the body’s system daily.

The hormone reduces the possibility that cells become carcinogenic, researchers say.

Experiments have shown electromagnetic radiation from power liens and appliances can reduce melatonin’s cleanup effect on human breast cancer cells, researchers say.

The project would not place anybody near the antenna and equipment, Irei said.

“There in no intention to put anything in the community that would deliberately harm residents,” Irei said.

After the project is built and operational, radiation from the project will be measured prodigally as a precaution, Irei said.

Takeuchi also said the project should be scrapped because it would become an eyesore.

Not so, says Irei, because the pole would be placed inside a replicated smoke stack at the old Waimea Mill grounds.

As part of its master plan to commemorate Waimea’s past, Kikiaola Land Co. Ltd., a west Kaua’i land development company, would build the shell of the mill and Voice Stream Wireless would build the smoke stack, Irei said.

An environmental study is not required because the pole is to be built for less than $125,000, Irei said.

If the county gives the green light, the pole, which would be built to withstand hurricane force winds, could be in operation between April and June 2001, Irei said.

The pole is to built at a cost of about $90,000.

VoiceStream has a 30-foot antenna at Kaua’i Veteran Center on Kapule Highway in Lihu’e.

In the future, Voice Stream plans to either build 11 new sites on the island to widen its cellphone coverage area on the island or to lease pole space from its competitors, depending on the height of the poles that could give VoiceStream customers the best service, Irei said.

Voice Stream has similar antenna facilities across the state.

The digital frequency used by VoiceStream offers advantages over companies that use analog frequency for its cell phone service, Irei said. The former allows for integration of Internet services.

Staff writer Lester Chang can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) and lchang@pulitzer.net