Anyone with a cell phone in the parking lot of the University City (U.C.) Library on Governor Drive would just pull out that phone and dial friends after seeing a giant tree almost on top of the small library building. “Unbelievable,” the caller would shout. “There’s a new, huge tree in the parking lot that wasn’t here yesterday. How did that happen?” Then the light would go on for someone texting, perhaps: “OMG it’s a cell tower. Duh! c u.” A new cell phone tower disguised as a huge tree is gracing the little library and its parking lot. This cell tower is not getting just laughs, however. Knowing that rental fees are paid by mobile phone companies, the question is how is University City benefitting from the Verizon cell tower? The library isn’t getting a dime of the $30,000 rental fee. The community isn’t getting a nickel of the $30,000 rental fee. According to the mayor’s office staff, the general fund is the beneficiary of the $30,000 annual rental fee for 10 years, every penny of it. However, no one in U.C. got to give input about placement of this cell phone tower/tree, its design and possible health hazards. When a member of the mayor’s staff was e-mailed about sharing the rental fee with the community in which the tree was placed, the response was vague: “Thanks for the inquiry. We have given that suggestion to our chief operating officer and chief financial officer for the next budget season. As you know, the city is working on bridging the structural, approximately $75 million (plus) deficit. Financial Management will have to see if that suggestion fits within the plan for the upcoming budget.” This answer gave little comfort to the U.C. inquiring mind. So another exchange occurred. The resident wrote: “Does that mean that U.C. is NOT getting anything for having that cell tower almost on top of the library? I find that unfair. Old neighborhoods like ours could use the money for the good of the community, as you know, not for frills but for basics.” The reply from the mayor’s office wrapped up the conversation/e-mail exchange. “That’s how the budget works. We would spend all our time tinkering with the budget, taking $30,000 here and taking $30,000 there and it would make budget schedules worthless. I’m not saying that your ideas are not interesting and shouldn’t be further discussed. But if revenue is kept in the community through projects like cell towers, it will be a major policy change and must be citywide. I’m sorry you think it is unfair to University City.” Concern surrounds the health of the library staff and visitors, especially the children. School is still out on the safety of heavy exposure to cell phone towers in neighborhoods. Radiation given off by these towers leads to a continuous manufacturing of heat shock proteins within cells, although in low levels, but over time the manufacturing of them from radiation lowers one’s resistance to cancer. In Germany, cows’ close proximity to cell phone towers had a reduced amount of milk and an increase in health problems. Once the bovines were removed from the cell phone tower area, they behaved normally. Returned to the towers and they regressed. Should U.C. line up some cows near the library cell tower in a test case study? Dr. Bruce Hocking in Australia examined children living near TV broadcast towers which were giving out the same radiation as cell towers. Twice the rate of leukemia was reported for these children than children seven miles away. Even the American Cancer Society questions long term impact of cell towers in residential areas. “Cellular phone towers, like cellular phones, are a relatively new technology, and we do not yet have full information on health effects. In particular, not enough time has elapsed to permit epidemiological studies. There are some theoretical reasons why cellular phone towers would not be expected to increase cancer risk, and animal studies of RF (radio frequency) have not suggested a risk of cancer. People who are concerned can ask for measurements of RF near cellular phone towers to be sure exposures do not exceed recommended limits.” You can choose to use a cell phone and take your health risks. If your government puts a cell tower next to your neighborhood library, you don’t have a choice, and a possible health hazard is constant. Here’s a question for Mayor Sanders. Will you measure the radio frequency field strength near the library cell tower to ensure it is within acceptable range? That is a reasonable request. Please don’t send someone from your office or from Verizon. Thank you.