We are a growing group of concerned Montgomery County, MD residents who oppose the rapid rollout of a dense network of “small” cell antennas for current 4G and 5G, and future 6G wireless technologies emitting radio frequency (RF) radiation, without proper investigation into their effects on the environment and the health of humans and wildlife. We are concerned about orders from the FCC (a revolving-door captured agency) and other federal restrictions that aim to strip away local authority over cell tower siting and prevent using health concerns in decision making. The FCC’s recent big loss in court proves what residents warned all along: The Council can’t trust the FCC’s safety standards for wireless radiation to protect our families. A federal appeals court ruled that the FCC failed to show that its 25-year-old safety limits for wireless radiation are based on science! Residents have asked the Council to wait for the FCC to justify or provide a reasoned explanation based on science for its RF limits.

Tell Montgomery County Council:
Restore full funding to the statutorily mandated Office of the People’s Counsel (OPC)

Testimony of Rick Meyer, Executive Director, Montgomery County Coalition for the Control of Cell Towers. This Council needs to end more than a decade of shameless efforts to lock residents out of zoning processes. The first step the Council can take towards rebuilding resident trust and repairing the engagement process is to vote against 18-23 and to restore full funding to the statutorily mandated People’s Counsel (OPC). Send your emails to the council by COB 4/25/2023.

Background on Cell Tower Legislation

The Council adopted two zoning text amendments, ZTA 22-01 Antennas on Existing Structures (Oct 25, 2022) and ZTA 19-07 (Jul 27, 2021), despite widespread opposition from residents, environmental groups, and candidates in the primary election. 100% of the residents who signed up to testify or submitted written testimony opposed the latest zoning change.

The ZTAs reduce the antenna setback to 30 feet from homes and schools and apartments, allow cell tower antennas on street lights, utility poles, and new poles in residential neighborhoods and remove residents’ previous rights to notice and hearings — eliminating the community from the decision making process. In commercial or mixed use zones, the setback was previously reduced to only 10 feet under ZTA 18-02. Please sign the Petition to Reform Montgomery County Cell Tower Legislation. When you sign the petition you will be added to the coalition news alert email list. Here are the top reasons why residents opposed ZTA 22-01 and want reform.

Our Mission

To provide Montgomery County, MD residents with resources, opportunities and information about the risks from these antennas and other related technologies infringing on our homes and public spaces — including the growing research evidence about the health risks of continuous exposures to pulsed, data-modulated, Radio Frequency, Radio-frequency Electromagnetic Microwave Radiation (RF-EMR), as well as the threat to our privacy;

To help all members of our community know their rights and organize to protect these rights, and the health and safety of ourselves, our families, and our shared environment; and

To engage our towns and cities in Montgomery County, the State of Maryland, and federal governments in advocating for the protection of the health and safety of residents and the environment in their laws, policies, and regulations on these matters.

We oppose the roll-out and proliferation of close-proximity wireless facilities and other wireless technologies, 5G small cell antenna installations, and the densification of 4G wireless antenna installations, near homes, schools, nursing homes, hospitals, and recreation areas until hazards for human health, wildlife, and the environment have been fully investigated by scientists independent from the telecommunications industry. We recognize that the companies selling or standing to profit from these technologies are not able to address in an unbiased way the many questions about the related risks and harms—including issues of health, safety, privacy, and the social, ecological, psychological, economic, and political impacts. We also recognize that the federal government does not allow local jurisdictions to consider health reasons in their small cell antenna permitting processes. This does not prevent the County from enacting resident friendly ordinances to protect us on key issues, eliminate Wireless Telecommunication Facility subsidies borne by MoCo resident taxpayers, set specific expectations and rights, set protective distance requirements, provide stronger safety reviews, better transparency and accountability, and a complete overhaul of their lax oversight and broken processes. We continue to urge the County Council to rescind ZTA 19-07 and to press FCC (in light of FCC’s court loss in EHT et al. v. FCC), based on a thorough review of ALL the science, to issue a well-reasoned explanation for new exposure limits that are truly protective; AND urge the entire Council to cancel all action on ZTA 22-01.

We seek to balance the plenitude of information promising benefits that these for-profit interests provide to residents and our elected officials with an alternative source of information that pays attention to the risks and harms these technologies may pose to the public interest. Our goal: Empower Montgomery County, MD residents to become savvy leaders in wisdom-guided democratic deliberations about whether and how to adopt these unprecedented technologies in our own community and across the nation.

Please join us! 

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The information provided here was gathered by Maryland residents and is publicly available on the internet. Content is intended as a starting point to inform you of 5G, small cell deployment, EMF risks and the un-democratic dynamics impacting our communities around the country and the world. We encourage you to do your own research, draw your own conclusions, and act accordingly to protect yourself and those you love.