Some residents of a suburban community of Halifax are voicing concerns about a 5G tower that’s proposed for the area, despite the telecommunications equipment complying with regulations by Health Canada.
The community, Upper Tantallon, is at the head of St. Margaret’s Bay, and is a hub for the nearby small communities dotting the coast.
The 35-metre tower, known in the telecommunications industry as a “monopole”, is proposed by Rogers Communications at 6 Sonny’s Road– a dead-end road behind a retail plaza.
Upper Tantallon falls within Halifax Regional Municipality, and its councillor, Pam Lovelace, wants to see more input from municipalities. Monopole locations are authorized by the federal government.
“Number one, we don’t seem to have a plan on where these monopoles are sited so they’re based on who sells land to which telecommunications company,” Lovelace said in an interview with Global News.
While Rogers will own the monopole, it is being developed and constructed by a smaller company: LandSolutions Inc.
As part of the proposal process, LandSolutions was required to post a sign on the property advising of the project and set up a website outlining the process.
The public contact for Rogers for public input on the Tantallon monopole is listed on the website as Tina McCallum, based in Calgary.
Lovelace said neither she nor any of her constituents have been able to reach McCallum. She has also been unable to receive a recording of a public consultation meeting on Zoom that was hosted by LandSolutions on April 13.
Lovelace wants to see more community input on the site of monopoles in the future, mentioning that residents are concerned with its proximity to schools.
“Obviously that creates a lot of contention and conflict with the local community, it’s best just to avoid that,” Lovelace said.
A spokesperson for Rogers said in an email statement to Global News that their consultation process adheres to the requirements of Innovation Science and Economic Development Canada and the HRM.
They said that Rogers will be responding individually to all community members who submitted feedback, and that they are working closely “with the local community to ensure our services, equipment and design meet their needs.”
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“The community has come out loud and clear this is not a good location, find another one,” Lovelace said.
Local concerns
Small business owners in the retail plaza are concerned with the tower’s location, citing what they believe to be health risks.
Health Canada’s webpage on 5G technology states, “based on the available scientific evidence, there are no health risks from exposure to the low levels of radiofrequency EMF which people are exposed to from cell phones, cell phone towers, antennas and 5G devices.”
“I’m here 60 hours a week as one of the owners, I have no idea what that’s going to be doing for me,” said Colin Glover, a co-owner of Redmond’s Home Hardware.
In addition to personal concerns, he worries about his children.
“As a parent of children who attend the dance academy at the end of the parking lot here, it’s just not something I’m really comfortable with,” he said as he gestured to the opposite side of the plaza.
“I’m not interested in them being a guinea pig, I’m not interested in it being tested on me to find out.”
Glover’s business partner, Allan Bardsley, owns the retail plaza and is also concerned with the monopole.
“We’re worried about the effect on businesses. The dance studio is losing customers. I have tenants in the professional centre that are worried about their business,” Bardsley said.
He feels that the monopole should be placed elsewhere.
“They have other options. There is large swaths of high land around here that is wilderness and doesn’t have so many people operating so long every week right beside it.”
He said that 5G technology is “still widely unknown technology,” and even went so far as to put up a sign in front of the plaza to spread the word.
The sign reads, “LET’S MOVE THE 5G TOWER AWAY FROM OUR KIDS.”
While he admits the new technology is “probably great for the community,” he thinks there are safer areas for “something this untested.”
“Please move it somewhere else. There’s a lot of people that are concerned with this,” Bardsley said.
The LandSolutions consultation website states that the monopole will be in compliance with Health Canada’s Safety Code 6, which outlines radiofrequency electromagnetic field (EMF) exposure limits.
The Code 6 website states, “Based on current scientific data, we have concluded that you will not experience adverse health effects from exposure to radiofrequency EMFs at the levels permitted by Safety Code 6. This includes exposure from equipment that uses 5G technology.”
The site goes on to say that exposure regulation limits protect people from “all known adverse health affects” including “adults, vulnerable people such a children, and people who work nearby radiofrequency EMF sources.”
Safety code 6 regulated exposure limits are consistent with standards in other nations. The website also states that “most research does not support a link between radiofrequency EMF and cancer.”
Kim Marshall lives in Upper Tantallon and describes herself as a mom. She started the Facebook group “Relocate the Tantallon 5G monopole away from our schools and children,” which currently has over 150 members.
Calling the monopole “too close and too risky,” Marshall said “unless they can answer all of our questions about the risks, I think this whole thing needs to go on pause.”
Marshall took part in the public Zoom meeting consultation on April 13.
“It was a very awkward and uncomfortable dialogue that was one-sided,” Marshall said.
She added that the person hosting the call had their video turned off and the chat was disabled, describing the meeting as “highly controlled.”
Marshall is concerned with health effects of 5G on children spending time in the area. When asked why she felt 5G was unsafe when Health Canada has said it is safe, Marshall said that Health Canada isn’t where she looks for “trusted information.”
“I think that it’s difficult, there’s conflict of interest, we really need to be looking at trusted sources. And unfortunately that’s hard to find because of censorship and the internet,” Marshall said.
“No evidence” of risk
Anwar Haque, an assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science at Western University in London, Ont., studies 5G technology.
From existing evidence and research, “as of today there is no evidence or research results showing that 5G is having a negative impact on human health,” Haque said in an interview with Global News.
He said that since the pandemic, there has been an increase in “unfounded ideas” about 5G technology with “no scientific basis.”
“These are the conspiracy theories that misled people, confused people,” Haque said.
Haque explained that 5G stands for fifth-generation wireless technology. With more tech advances comes more generations which bring increased quality in bandwidth, speed, signal reliability and coverage.
He said that the technology is heavily regulated, and that Health Canada has a standard limit of what level any telecommunications equipment will be operating in terms of radio frequency.
Haque added that Canada’s regulations determined a level of radiation that has effects on human health. The allowed limit is 50 times less than this threshold.
A spokesperson for the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association, which describes itself as the “authority on wireless issues, developments and trends in Canada,” said in an email statement that 5G uses a low-energy radio frequency energy “similar to that used by televisions, radios, and baby monitors.”
The statement said that effects from this type of mobile communications “have been studied for decades.”
Haque said people should not be concerned about health issues with 5G.
Haque would like to see education campaigns for the public to not only explain the benefit of 5G technology but also how low the risk is.
“I think that would be a useful thing to minimize misinformation, and that only creates confusion among people. It’s not good for us,” Haque said.
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