La Jolla Presbyterian Church, known for its bell tower, may soon have a cell tower if the proposed installation of wireless communications equipment goes through.
The proposal, discussed at the May 13 La Jolla Planned District Ordinance Committee meeting, would place Dish Network wireless antennas inside the bell tower on the property at 7715 Draper Ave., with screening to hide the equipment.
The screens would be painted to match the medium-blue tile color from the mosaics on the bell tower that are in place to prevent birds from flying into the tower.
The antennas would be entirely within the building and therefore comply with height and setback requirements. There is no proposed extension of the bell tower.
Though the PDO Committee gave its to the screening, local parents expressed concern about the possibility of exposure to electromagnetic fields, or EMFs, for the children who attend the church’s preschool and play at the La Jolla Recreation Center across the street.
Anissa Mansson said that when she received notification about the equipment going in, she ed the city of San Diego seeking more information.
“We were informed that the antenna is a 5G facility … and the FCC [Federal Communications Commission] regulations are based on information from 1996,” she said.
A Presbyterian Church representative said officials believe the proposed tower is 5G. Dish Network, which provides satellite TV and mobile phone services, did not immediately respond to a request for confirmation.
5G is a fifth-generation wireless network that is intended to increase internet speeds and provide more reliable connections through the use of higher-frequency radio waves.
“There are no long-term studies [about the health effects of this type of radiation]. This is new technology,” Mansson said. “But what most studies said is that the people that would be most susceptible are small children. In this case, they will be under that thing, for some, from 8:30 a.m. until 3 p.m. five days a week.”
She said she doesn’t oppose installation of the technology, but asked that it be placed elsewhere.
“This location isn’t appropriate because … it’s directly on top of where young children play and adjacent to the young children’s area at the La Jolla Recreation Center,” said La Jolla resident Warren Manfredi, whose children attend the church preschool. “I understand La Jolla is a pretty affluent community, but not everyone has a big yard … and they need a place where they can send their kids to play. They shouldn’t have to think about possible dangers of new technologies.”
The FCC says it requires all wireless communications devices to meet “minimum guidelines for safe human exposure to radio frequency.”
A Forbes report in January quoted Christopher Collins, a professor of radiology at New York University, as saying 5G electromagnetic waves “have a higher frequency, which allows it to carry more information, [but] it also has a smaller wavelength and does not penetrate the body as far as lower-frequency energy.”
Electromagnetic fields consist of non-ionizing, low-level radiation such as from phones, computers, power lines and microwaves, and ionizing EMFs, which have much higher-level radiation, such as from sunlight and X-rays.
The highest 5G frequency ranges from 24.25 GHz to 52.6 GHz, where “the big gains in speed of data transfer are really expected,” Collins told Forbes. But, he said, the frequency where electromagnetic radiation starts to ionize and becomes dangerous is about 3 million GHz.
The U.S. Food and Drug istration says “the current limit on radiofrequency energy set by the [FCC] remains acceptable for protecting public health.”
And research published in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology said it found “no confirmed evidence that low-level RF fields above 6GHz such as those used by the 5G network are hazardous to human health.”
However, Forbes reported, more than 3,500 physicians have cited peer-reviewed scientific studies pointing to possible risks associated with non-ionizing radiation, including cancer, cellular stress, genetic damage, reproductive changes and neurological disorders.
The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences said that “in the age of cellular telephones, wireless routers and the internet … all of which use EMF, concerns persist about possible connections between EMF and adverse health effects.”
The institute said additional research is needed and recommended “continued education on practical ways to reduce exposures to EMFs.”
Rachael Reynolds, representing Dish Network at the PDO meeting, said “these cell sites propagate a very low frequency, and with the site being much higher than the ground level, that’s virtually nothing. If you think about your house, everything electronic emits something, from light bulbs to TVs and the microwave.”
Reynolds said La Jolla Presbyterian Church was chosen as a cell tower site through a process Dish uses to determine where equipment might be needed.
Dish has no wireless facilities in La Jolla, she said, “so that’s a big problem for them.”
“There is an engineer that identifies the need and sends us a ring [on a map] that is sometimes a mile or a half-mile that is very specific to the area they are trying to reach,” Reynolds said. “Ultimately, we came to the church because it has a high bell tower already. We try to put them in taller buildings, but it has to have space and, in La Jolla, there are not a lot of areas where you can put these [40-foot] towers. So we’re trying to use existing structures.”
The ultimate goal, she said, “is to have the site interconnect with other proposed sites that haven’t been built and then, as a network, be able to provide Dish coverage to this area that doesn’t have any.”
La Jolla Presbyterian Church “initiated a thorough review process to consider this proposal. We are currently in the preliminary stages,” said Jim Sedgewick, church communications director. “This permit process is designed to ensure there is ample opportunity for environmental review and public input before any decisions are made.”
According to the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996, advisory boards cannot make decisions on cell towers based on EMF and health issues.
And noting that the PDO Committee reviews projects only for architectural standards and conformance to the Planned District Ordinance, board member Andy Fotsch said the committee would not be voting on the equipment.
The screening effort, he said, is “really well done.”
A motion that the screening aspect complies with the PDO ed unanimously.
The proposal soon will be heard by the La Jolla Development Permit Review Committee, which next meets at 4 p.m. Tuesday, May 21, at The Bishop’s School.
The plan then will be heard by the La Jolla Community Planning Association.
The city of San Diego will have final say.
Dish plans a separate meeting to discuss aesthetics and potential risks, but a location and date have not been determined. ◆
