# Cell phone towers on the roof - do I need a tin-foil hat? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 9, 2011, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-towers-on-the-roof-do-i-need-a-tin-foil-hat/584917 "2011-06-09T23:50:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ba8739/32.png) [@Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Backwater_Under_Duck)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-towers-on-the-roof-do-i-need-a-tin-foil-hat/584917/1 "2011-06-09T23:50:19Z")
City of Burbank. As in beautiful, downtown Burbank. We just got an alert from one of our IT people who keep up on this stuff. The company that manages our building has contracted with T-Mobile to construct a 16 dish array of cell phone antennae directly over our heads. As in, DIRECTLY OVER OUR HEADS. We’re on the 6th floor of a 6 floor building. We have not been informed of this project because T-Mobile got their permits for construction last year BEFORE the Burbank city bylaws were changed to require everyone within a 1000 feet radius to be notified. Apparently there is some concern among a number of the fine folks who are going to have a swarm of 8 antennae right above their desks about the effects of ELMs and Radio Frequency emissions (microwaves) on their (our) well being. From the e-mail alert: “For the record we contacted the Burbank city council about this and the FCC regulations. The FCC disallows any contest by any State or Municipal agency based on health concerns. It’s been known in political circles for some time that the FCC is a protective agency of the telecom industry and not truly a Federal agency.” (Emphasis mine.) The building management group dismissed our concerns with a bunch of cites for their case, and our people have a bunch of cites that disagree. The have agreed to hold a meeting for us with a nuclear medicine specialist to… I’m not sure what, since it seems like a done deal. But they told us to submit ant questions we might have in advance. So I guess my question is: is there anything useful we should be asking them? I’m too old to worry about my gonads, but do I need to cover my fedora with lead to save what’s left of my brain? ---
**Author:** ![Asympotically\_fat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e47c2d/32.png) [@Asympotically\_fat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asympotically_fat)\ **Post date:** [June 9, 2011, 11:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-towers-on-the-roof-do-i-need-a-tin-foil-hat/584917/2 "2011-06-09T23:53:29Z")
I think what I would be most worried about is the array stealing my thoughts. ---
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-towers-on-the-roof-do-i-need-a-tin-foil-hat/584917/3 "2011-06-10T02:16:42Z")
The resident radio and telecommunications folks should be along shortly to explain the basics in terms devoid of hype, politics and scaremongering. You might want to read up on the inverse-square law of electromagnetic waves since they may test you on it. ---
**Author:** ![WarmNPrickly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/d78d45/32.png) [@WarmNPrickly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WarmNPrickly)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-towers-on-the-roof-do-i-need-a-tin-foil-hat/584917/4 "2011-06-10T02:27:18Z")
You tin foil hat is pretty useless. A proper Faraday cage requires a complete enclosure. At the very least you will need a tin foil suit, but corners aren’t good either so better yet is a tin foil hamster ball. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-towers-on-the-roof-do-i-need-a-tin-foil-hat/584917/5 "2011-06-10T02:28:53Z")
The only way cell phone radiation can do damage to living tissue is by cooking it. If it’s cooking you, you’ll know it, by feeling the burns. If it doesn’t feel like someone’s sticking you on a hot stove, then you’re fine. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-towers-on-the-roof-do-i-need-a-tin-foil-hat/584917/6 "2011-06-10T04:14:23Z")
Cell phone towers look big and scary, but they really don’t transmit out a lot of power. The reason why is simple. They are talking to cell phones. Think of it as a guy with a bullhorn trying to talk to a guy without a bullhorn across a stadium. Sure the guy without the bullhorn can hear the guy with the bullhorn, but the guy with the bullhorn can’t hear the replies from the guy without. So using the bullhorn doesn’t really allow them two way conversations. It’s the same thing with cell phones. There’s no sense transmitting a ton of power from the tower because you have to be able to hear the reply from the cell phone for the whole thing to work. That’s why cells are so small and there are towers freaking everywhere. The cell tower probably does have a high power antenna on it somewhere, but it’s going to be very directional and it is going to be used to link that tower to the rest of the cell system. Almost all of the energy is going to be directed away from where the people are. The actual cell phone communication antennas are going to be fairly directional as well. Most of their energy will be directed out away from the building. I wouldn’t recommend climbing on top of the tower and going in front of the high power antenna, but down below is safe. It’s even safer if your building uses steel frame construction (which it probably does if it has 6 floors) because the building steel will form a natural faraday cage of sorts. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-towers-on-the-roof-do-i-need-a-tin-foil-hat/584917/7 "2011-06-10T05:00:27Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#): > > It’s even safer if your building uses steel frame construction (which it probably does if it has 6 floors) because the building steel will form a natural faraday cage of sorts. Do reinforced concerete structures have the same quality? ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-towers-on-the-roof-do-i-need-a-tin-foil-hat/584917/8 "2011-06-10T07:27:30Z")
Cell phone towers don’t radiate down, so being directly underneath is actually the safest place to be. And since the danger from being in the path of radiation is miniscule at worst I wouldn’t worry. The best evidence in the WHO cancer “warning” that caused a lot of tabloid hoopla last week indicated a tiny increase in cancer based on the fact that people who’re diagnosed with brain cancer are more likely to report high cell phone usage when asked, after their diagnosis, about their talking habits over the previous 10-15 years… ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 11:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-towers-on-the-roof-do-i-need-a-tin-foil-hat/584917/9 "2011-06-10T11:37:38Z")
> [@WarmNPrickly](#): > > You tin foil hat is pretty useless. A proper Faraday cage requires a complete enclosure. At the very least you will need a tin foil suit, but corners aren’t good either so better yet is a tin foil hamster ball. Haven’t I read somewhere that the tin-foil approach will actually act as an antennae, and instead of reflecting the ninny-rays it’ll draw them in? ---
**Author:** ![Gedd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gedd/32/4938_2.png) [@Gedd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gedd)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-towers-on-the-roof-do-i-need-a-tin-foil-hat/584917/10 "2011-06-10T13:21:24Z")
> [@postcards](#): > > Haven’t I read somewhere that the tin-foil approach will actually act as an antennae, and instead of reflecting the ninny-rays it’ll draw them in? That’s only if you made the hat with the shiny side in. You want the shiny side facing out. ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-towers-on-the-roof-do-i-need-a-tin-foil-hat/584917/11 "2011-06-10T14:08:30Z")
[They’re probably already all around you anyway.](http://www.cracked.com/article_18717_6-massive-secret-operations-that-are-hidden-all-around-you.html) See item #4. ---
**Author:** ![UncleRojelio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unclerojelio/32/3160_2.png) [@UncleRojelio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleRojelio)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 3:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-towers-on-the-roof-do-i-need-a-tin-foil-hat/584917/12 "2011-06-10T15:13:20Z")
Men working aloft. Do not rotate, radiate or otherwise activate in transmitting equipment. Men working aloft. That is all. ---
**Author:** ![anson2995](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@anson2995](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anson2995)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-towers-on-the-roof-do-i-need-a-tin-foil-hat/584917/13 "2011-06-10T17:06:10Z")
> [@Backwater\_Under\_Duck](#): > > Apparently there is some concern among a number of the fine folks who are going to have a swarm of 8 antennae right above their desks about the effects of ELMs and Radio Frequency emissions (microwaves) on their (our) well being. > > From the e-mail alert: "For the record we contacted the Burbank city council about this and the FCC regulations. The FCC disallows any contest by any State or Municipal agency based on health concerns. That’s because it is a well-established scientific fact that there is no health risk from cell phone towers, and the courts have been clogged with local municipalities trying to block the construction of towers by arguing that there is. No amount of evidence will convince those who argue otherwise, which is why we (the United States) took the unusual step of actually prohibiting that legal argument by law. If there were a top-ten list for “kooky ideas that people get all worked up about,” this would probably be #2. ---
**Author:** ![Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ba8739/32.png) [@Backwater\_Under\_Duck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Backwater_Under_Duck)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-towers-on-the-roof-do-i-need-a-tin-foil-hat/584917/14 "2011-06-10T17:35:06Z")
Thank you, all. I tend to be less worried about stuff like this than most, but we do have some genuinely freaked-out folks around here. And, as we all know, once you have the fear-factor in your head, no amount of reasoning is going to pry it out. ---
**Author:** ![butler1850](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/779978/32.png) [@butler1850](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/butler1850)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2011, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-towers-on-the-roof-do-i-need-a-tin-foil-hat/584917/15 "2011-06-10T18:12:36Z")
Please call the cell phone provider, and ask them to move the tower to the roof of my office. I get NO signal at my desk, and I"m less than 10ft from the window. From a health standpoint (IANAD), it’s a non-issue. Microwave transmissions are on the order of a few watts. Radio signals are non-ionizing radiation, and could potentially harm only by heating, which has been mentioned above. ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2011, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-towers-on-the-roof-do-i-need-a-tin-foil-hat/584917/16 "2011-06-11T06:45:17Z")
> [@butler1850](#): > > Please call the cell phone provider, and ask them to move the tower to the roof of my office. I get NO signal at my desk, and I"m less than 10ft from the window. > > From a health standpoint (IANAD), it’s a non-issue. Microwave transmissions are on the order of a few watts. Radio signals are non-ionizing radiation, and could potentially harm only by heating, which has been mentioned above. As mentioned above, cell phone towers don’t radiate straight down, so it wouldn’t help your reception. ---
**Author:** ![engineer\_comp\_geek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/engineer_comp_geek/32/504_2.png) [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2011, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-towers-on-the-roof-do-i-need-a-tin-foil-hat/584917/17 "2011-06-11T17:46:25Z")
> [@butler1850](#): > > Please call the cell phone provider, and ask them to move the tower to the roof of my office. I get NO signal at my desk, and I"m less than 10ft from the window. Ironically, being close to the tower gives you the worst possible reception. The antennas radiate outward, so you need to be far enough away from the tower that you are inside the antenna beam pattern. This is what the beam pattern of a typical antenna looks like: [http://stgvisie.home.xs4all.nl/VISIE/low\_gain3.gif](http://stgvisie.home.xs4all.nl/VISIE/low_gain3.gif) You want to be inside the lines. Directly under and over the tower gets no reception at all. The OP may want to show this pattern to their co-workers. It shows that being directly under the tower is actually one of the safest places to be if you are concerned about radio waves. ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [June 11, 2011, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-towers-on-the-roof-do-i-need-a-tin-foil-hat/584917/18 "2011-06-11T17:57:05Z")
A straight, vertical dipole antenna won’t radiate straight up or down. A real antenna may be designed to radiate outward, but probably doesn’t have a perfect null directly below it. I wouldn’t count on there being no radiation directly downward. ---
**Author:** ![smithsb](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smithsb/32/12107_2.png) [@smithsb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smithsb)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2011, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-towers-on-the-roof-do-i-need-a-tin-foil-hat/584917/19 "2011-06-12T05:57:49Z")
> [@Alessan](#): > > Do reinforced concerete structures have the same quality? Yes, a lattice of steel bars (rebar - reinforcing bar - in the parlance) is constructed and the form for the concrete is built around it. The concrete is poured in, around, and between the steel latice. The wall/floor/ceiling may be cast in place or done in sections and raised later (lots of construction methods here). Bottom line is that you have a steel rebar latice that protects against/interfers with electromagnetic radiation coming in and going out. The size of the “squares” of the latice influence the ability to block/or conduct radiation. Smaller grids will provide more “protection” but that is also influenced by the wavelength of the radiation in question. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2011, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cell-phone-towers-on-the-roof-do-i-need-a-tin-foil-hat/584917/20 "2011-06-12T06:19:22Z")
> [@Max\_Torque](#): > > [They’re probably already all around you anyway.](http://www.cracked.com/article_18717_6-massive-secret-operations-that-are-hidden-all-around-you.html) See item #4. Everybody immediately can recognize a fake palm tree cell phone tower. That’s because they’re always perfectly straight, and palm trees always curve a little one way or the other. However, most people don’t know that their church is probably leasing out it’s steeple tower for cell phone antennas, too.