2020-03-05 Exh C New Cingular dba AT&T USE 19-082

Home

noisy environment, so it's actually a very quiet unit encased in these shelters, and they are also mounted with anti -vibration mounting and baffling to keep noise minimized. And, again, in the last hearing, we had questions about the potential health risks which we've discussed before, but for the record, I'll just go through it quickly again. AT&T builds and maintains all their sites in accordance with FCC guidelines for human exposure radiofrequency. The energy from the antennas on sites decreases with distance. As a result, ground level exposure is much lower than if a person were close to the antenna and the main beam, meaning up at 140 feet. The FCC's RF exposure guidelines recommend the maximum permissible exposure level to the general public of approximately 580 microwatts per square meter. This limit is many times greater than the RF levels typically found near the base, base of cell sites or in the vicinity. The proposed site will operate at levels much lower than the FCC limits. In addition, the American Cancer Society affirms that at ground level near typical cellular -based stations, the amount of RF energy is thousands of times less than limits for safe exposure set by the FCC and other regulatory guide authorities. And, it was also found that it's very unlikely for an individual to be exposed to excessive RF just by being close to a cell site. Accordingly, as a report on cell sites, the American Cancer Society confirms that most scientists believe that cell sites and antennas are unlikely to cause cancer or result in health problems. Again, the World Health Organization confirms the same, comes to the same conclusion and reaffirms that—confirms that RF emissions diminish rapidly with distance. And, the State Department of Health, Hazard Evaluation Emergency Response Office, and I included their fact sheet which has recently been published, found that the current body of scientific evidence does not show an association with cell phone use or living near cell towers and cancer. While studies specifically about living near towers are few, RF energy exposure from your personal cell phone is significantly higher than living in the close proximity to a cell tower, and large studies do not show an association of heavy cell phone usage and cancer. So, additional information about RF safety is included in your package. Again, we had questions about property values, and I'll keep this short, but there aren't definitive studies showing that property values are decreasing across the country, and I've referenced a number of studies here that, that confirm this. And, lastly, I again wanted to reiterate this is a part of the FirstNet program, which is the backbone, as we discussed for, for the FirstNet program here locally in Hawaii. This will be a node in it, and we've gotten letters in support from the County of Hawaii Fire Department and the Police Department. Just to point out, the Fire Department is a vested recipient, this is a quote from the Chief, the Fire Chief that "HCFD is a vested recipient of the build out FirstNet, a broadband network dedicated to public safety. The fact that Hawai` i is the first to roll this out speaks volumes to the readiness of AT&T to provide the service to Hawaii Island. FirstNet allows our department priority and preemption while on FirstNet, thereby securing optimum emergency response by increasing optimum communication among our first responders. However, the efficient use of cellular technology such as FirstNet is subject to effective cellular coverage. Unfortunately, cellular coverage on Hawaii Island is not optimum, leaving critical catchment areas void of effective service." This is one of those areas that we need to cover. This is a priority also. EXHIBIT C 3