Re: Can living next to a TV antenna transmitter be harmful?

You ask:

Can living next to a TV antenna transmitter be harmful?

TV broadcast antennas (UHF or VHF) use radio-frequency (RF) radiation to transmit both the pictures and the sound. Some of that RF radiation reaches the ground near the tower, otherwise people who live near the tower would not be able to receive a TV signal (unless they got cable).

In the US and in most of the world, the amount of RF radiation that people who live near TV and radio broadcast towers can receive is strictly regulated by the government. In the case of the US, this regulation is by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).

In most cases, the RF radiation levels near towers are less than 10% of the level specified by the regulations; but in some cases where there are multiple antennas near each other, the level of RF radiation can come very close to the regulations.

Most scientists consider that there are no health hazards associated with these levels of RF radiation. There are several reasons for this:

1. Based on what we know about biology and about the physics of RF radiation, no effects would be expected to occur at these levels of exposure.
2. Exposure of cells to these levels of RF radiation generally produces no effects at all. When effects have been reported, other scientists have generally not be able to replicate (repeat) the studies.
3. Exposure of animals for long periods of time to these levels of RF radiation (or to higher levels) generally produces no effects at all. As with the cellular studies, the scattered reports of effects have failed attempts at replication.
4. Studies of people who are exposed to radiation on the job have found no consistent evidence for health effects.
5. Finally, there is no consistent evidence that people who live around TV and radio broadcast antennas have any unusual health problems. The major studies have focused on cancer:
   • In 1996, Hocking and colleagues [Med J Austral 165:601-605, 1996] compared municipalities "near TV towers" to those further away. No RF radiation exposures were actually measured and the study is based on only a single metropolitan area. The authors report an elevated incidence of total leukemia and childhood leukemia, but no increase in brain tumor incidence.
   • In 1998, McKenzie and colleagues [Aust New Zealand J Public Health 22:360-367, 1998] repeated the above Hocking study. They looked at the same area, and at the same time period; but they made more precise estimates of the exposure to RF radiation that people got in various areas. They found increased childhood leukemia in one area near the TV antennas, but not in other similar areas near the same TV antennas; and they found no significant correlation between RF radiation exposure and the rate of childhood leukemia. They also found that much of the "excess childhood leukemia" reported by Hocking had occurred before high-power 24-hour TV broadcasting had started.
   • In 1997, Dolk and colleagues [Amer J Epidem 145:1-9, 1997] investigated a reported leukemia and lymphoma cluster near a high-power FM/TV broadcast antenna at Sutton Coldfield in the UK. They found that the incidence of adult leukemia and skin cancer was elevated within 2 km of the antenna, and that the incidence of these cancers decreased with distance. No associations at all were seen for any other type of cancer.
   • Because of the above finding, Dolk and colleagues extended their study to 20 other high-power FM/TV broadcast antennas in the UK [Amer J Epidem 145:10-17, 1997]. No elevations of cancer incidence were found near the antennas, and no declines in cancer incidence with distance were seen. This very large study does not support the results found in the much smaller studies by the same authors at Sutton Coldfield or by Hocking in Australia.

Two on-line resources that deal specifically with RF radiation exposures from TV broadcast antennas are:

• A 1999 Q and A sheet from the US FCC that is on line at: www.fcc.gov/Bureaus/Engineering_Technology/Documents
• The 2002 Q and A document from the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency that is on line at: www.arpansa.gov.au/pubs

John Moulder
Radiation Biologist
Medical College of Wisconsin
Electromagnetic Fields and Human Health