Comments on High Power Transmission Towers on Lookout Mountain

1
Comments on High Power Transmission Towers on
Lookout Mountain

• Roger Mattson, Ph.D.
• Jefferson County Resident
• Presentation to
• County Commission of Jefferson County
• July 1, 2003

2
A Question of Doing the Right Thing

• The problem we have is
• What is the right thing?

3
Qualifications

• Mechanical Engineer, 39 years experience in
  nuclear safety and radiation standards
• 17 years with federal regulatory agencies
• EPA ionizing non-ionizing radiation standards
• AEC and NRC ionizing radiation standards
• 20 years oversight of EMI research

4
The Federal Government is Not Minding the Store

• Our Government has no entity that will say there
  are no health effects from long term, low level
  exposures to non ionizing radiation.
• In the past 5 years, the EPA has spent only
  25,000 in total for research in this area, even
  though it is the health agency designated to be
  in charge.
• No one at the federal level is looking into the
  effects of long term exposure even though FCC has
  called for more research, along with EPA, NIH,
  NIOSH, FDA, NTIA, and NCRP.

5
Current FCC Standards Are Flawed

• There are no standards that address long term,
  low level exposure.
• There is no organized research in the U.S. on the
  long term health effects.
• Standards in some countries are lower by as much
  as 100 times relative to U.S. to guard against
  potential effects of long term, low level
  exposure. (Austria, Canada, China, European
  Union, Italy, Russia, Switzerland)

6
Recent Research Indicates Long Term Effects of
Low Level Exposures

• Since about 1990 there has been a growing
  international body of scientific evidence that
  non ionizing radiation causes health effects for
  long term exposures well below the current FCC
  standards.
• The Colorado Department of Health has studied
  Jeffco neighborhoods and found an excess of brain
  tumors, a scientifically recognized effect of non
  ionizing radiation.
• Studies of the public near TV towers in Italy,
  Hawaii, Great Britain and Australia also indicate
  that there are adverse effects of exposure to low
  levels of radiofrequency radiation.

7
Public Consequences of the Proposed Rezoning
Action

• Some of your constituents chose to live closer to
  high power transmission facilities than almost
  anyone else in the country because they were not
  informed of the potential hazards and because the
  zoning did not allow industrial development.
• Lake Cedar Group wants to make the situation
  worse by increasing the power levels and bringing
  the new tower closer to more people.
• Without our consent, we would become the nation's
  guinea pigs for learning the consequences of long
  term exposure to low levels of non ionizing
  radiation.
• The only scientific evidence available today says
  that these consequences appear to be adult and
  childhood leukemia, brain cancer, infertility,
  altered immune function, and neurological and
  developmental impairment.

8
The Buck Stops Here

• No federal agency has pre-empted the setting of
  public health standards in this field - local
  governments are left to set their own standards.
• County Commissioners have the power and the
  responsibility to act to protect their citizens.
  
• If there are health effects, and if you approve
  this rezoning request, then you are accountable
  for those health effects. 

9
The Right Thing

• Deny this rezoning application.
• Require LCG to chose an alternative location with
  lower public health risks apply ALARA.
• Adopt a precautionary policy by denying the
  application now, before all of the scientific
  proof is in hand apply prudence.
• Require any future applicants to address the
  health effects of their proposed actions.
• Require independent monitoring interference
  remediation for existing towers (current
  liability).