The Red, White & Blue Fire Protection District closed a station near Breckenridge, Colorado in August after months of health concerns related to a telecommunications upgrade, according to documents Summit Daily News which published the story entitled “A Summit County fire station closed with little explanation this summer. Now we know why. ”
Red, White & Blue public information officer Amanda Seidler confirmed the closure of Station 4 on Colorado Highway 9 last month in an email that said the station was temporarily closed “in an abundance of caution” as the district evaluates “certain matters.”
Records turned over Tuesday, Oct. 24, reveal that the station closed Aug. 24, and station staff had raised health concerns as far back as last year, after T-Mobile upgraded its existing telecommunications equipment on the station. According to the report, issues at the station began after T-Mobile installed new telecommunications equipment in the summer of 2022. In the Fall of that year, employees sent emails reporting static buzzing from speakers and radio interference at the station. An engine captain wrote in an email that staff have witnessed “a few strange things happen” since the upgrade at Station 4, including “a few random headaches.”
The engine captain noted that the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has permissible exposure limits related to telecommunications equipment and requested that Red, White & Blue contact T-Mobile to investigate the exposure levels in the station.
“This would put us all at great ease knowing that we are not being exposed to any unsafe levels of radiation from this new equipment,” the engine captain wrote.
On May 26, a lawyer for Red, White & Blue sent a second notice to T-Mobile stating that the interference issues had not been solved, noting the warning signage and stating, “the threat to firefighter health created by the T-Mobile equipment is creating difficulty with staffing the station, which negatively affects public safety.”
Read the full article at https://www.rmpbs.org/blogs/news/red-white-blue-fire-protection-district/
The above information was summarized and excerpted from Summit Daily News “A Summit County fire station closed with little explanation this summer. Now we know why. ”
Theodora Scarato of Environmental Health Trust stated, “Firefighter groups in the United States have long opposed cell towers on their stations. Not only that, but in California they have been able to be exempt from the forced placement of towers on their stations because of the strong opposition they have- due to health concerns from the radiation.”
The International Association of Fire Fighters has an official position against cell towers on fire stations.
“The International Association of Fire Fighters’ position on locating cell towers commercial wireless infrastructure on fire department facilities, as adopted by its membership in August 2004 (1), is that the IAFF oppose the use of fire stations as base stations for towers and/or antennas for the conduction of cell phone transmissions until a study with the highest scientific merit and integrity on health effects of exposure to low-intensity RF/MW radiation is conducted and it is proven that such sitings are not hazardous to the health of our members.”
THE FIREFIGHTER’S WAKE UP CALL TO US ALL
by Susan Foster
“A 2004 SPECT brain scan study of firefighters in Central California found brain abnormalities in all the men tested, as well as delayed reaction time, lack of impulse control and cognitive impairment. None of the men worked HazMat, so chemical exposure was ruled out. All the firefighters tested had suffered from sleep disturbances, headaches, lack of focus and memory loss following installation of a tower adjacent to their station five years earlier. They sued the wireless company that told them the towers were perfectly harmless, but Sec. 704 of The Telecommunications Act of 1996 does not allow health to be taken into consideration when siting a tower, so the judge dismissed the lawsuit.”
https://ehtrust.org/firestation-closes-due-to-cell-tower-radiation-issues/ Source: Environmental Health Trust
