Olive Lodge folk say only solution is for cell tower to go

Villagers in Olive Lodge, Holders Hill, St James, on Monday stepped up their demands for the removal of a cell tower erected in the middle of the village last month, despite telecommunications provider Digicel and regulators declaring their intention to find a solution.

At the centre of the dispute are fears that radiation from the tower will cause cancer and other health issues, their lead spokeswoman said.

Digicel said on Monday that it stood “ready to resolve this matter in a fair, transparent manner in the interest of the public that we serve”, while the government’s Telecommunications Unit said it was “committed to helping to resolve this matter quickly, such that residents will not be adversely affected”.

But speaking for the 70 families in the district, retired university professor Dr Jennifer Obidah-Alleyne declared that the only resolution they will entertain is the tower’s removal from their close-knit community.

“A resolution would look like the removal of the cell tower,” she told Barbados TODAY, expressing dissatisfaction with the tower’s location being shifted on Friday.

“But whereas the cell tower was 30 feet away from Sister Gloria’s house, it is now 45 feet. The recommendation is 65 feet. Where it was 30 feet close to her property, it is now 45 feet, and it is now 54 feet from the house behind it. It was further away from that house [behind it] and closer to Sister Gloria’s house. Now it is 15 feet more away from Sister Gloria’s house, but still not in compliance.

“The fundamental issue is that because residential homes are surrounding it, however they shift that mechanism, it will be close to another property. So, the only resolution that we want is to get it out of there.”

But Digicel is contending that it has complied with all of the Telecommunications Unit’s requirements in setting up a temporary site for the tower. It said after getting a complaint last Monday about one of its sites, it reached out to both the complainant to understand the nature of the complaint, and to the Telecommunications Unit for guidance.

“Our internal investigations and immediate discussions with the Telecommunications Unit confirmed that Digicel had followed all known procedures and guidelines in the temporary placement of a site at the location of Olive Lodge Road, St James – a site servicing approximately 2 500 users and 25-plus businesses in the surrounding areas.

“In response to the complaint made, over the subsequent three days, Digicel assiduously and successfully engaged with the Barbados Light & Power Company Limited who responded quickly to provide commercial power to the site and eliminate the complaint of noise and fumes emanating from a generator at the site. In addition, the site itself was repositioned further away from the residences in the immediate area,” it said.

“In successive engagements with the Telecommunications Unit, requirements and processes regarding locating of a temporary site were discussed, and Digicel has complied with all asks of the Telecommunications Unit in relation to the temporary site in its current form in the current location.”

Digicel concluded: “We respect the regulatory process of our island and anticipate an expeditious outcome in alignment with any directives of the Telecommunications Unit. As part of our commitment to Barbados, our lines of communication are always open, and we stand ready to resolve this matter in a fair, transparent manner in the interest of the public that we serve.”

The residents’ representative rejected the company’s assertion that it had complied with all the regulator’s requirements, with Dr Obidah-Alleyne, a former UWI Dean of Humanities and Education, saying the Telecommunications Unit had informed her it had not followed all known procedures and guidelines.

She also took issue with Digicel’s pronouncement that it eliminated the complaint of noise and fumes emanating from a generator.

“This, to me, makes it seem as though it was only one complaint,” she said. “The complaint was about the placement of the cell tower. A secondary complaint was about the noise and fumes emanating from the generator which was necessary to run the cell tower.”

The Telecommunications Unit said in a full-page statement on Monday that it was informed that residents had raised concerns about the erection of the tower, coupled with health fears, noise and fumes from the generator and that they queried whether the firm had been given permission by the Planning and Development Department to erect the structure.

It said it had engaged with Digicel who indicated that the tower was temporary but urgent to avoid interruption in service to the area.

The Unit said that while its mandate as regulator does relate to quality and business continuity on the island, the safety and well-being of residents is central to that mandate. It was therefore agreed that once the construction of the tower constituted a change of use from residential to commercial, Digicel would have to seek approval from the planning department.

It said Digicel has submitted a formal retention application for installed cell on wheels (CoW).

“In the interim, the CoW has been moved to within the proposed distance of 20 metres from the nearest residence, in keeping with planning guidance for installations of this nature,” the Telecommunications Unit said.

The generator responsible for the noise and diesel fumes was also removed and replaced with a temporary supply of electricity, it added.

The department said it used as its benchmark, the International Commission on Non-Ionising Radiation Protection standard for the maximum allowed exposure to radio-frequency power density: “This now stands at 0.5 m/W/cm2. Recent testing by TU of this site and existing sites operated by this utility, show them operating at no higher than five per cent of this standard.”

Amid residents’ complaints that they were not notified before the tower’s installation, the Telecommunications Unit issued a caution to Digicel: “We acknowledge the need to continuously pursue economic and infrastructural development to improve the quality of services to all residents of Barbados. This must, and will be balanced with the engagement of all citizens to receive their feedback, and in so doing, help secure their well-being.”

Having already announced their intention to take the company to court to file for an injunction to stop any further work on the site and to have it removed from Olive Lodge, the householders have taken a step at reaching an out-of-court settlement in their impasse with Digicel.

Dr Obidah-Alleyne on Monday submitted a petition to the regulator “demanding the immediate removal of the Digicel cell phone tower from its location on a residential plot surrounded by homes occupied primarily by the elderly”.

Bearing 123 signatures, representing 67 of the 70 homes, she shared the contents of the document with Barbados TODAY.

The petitioners cite studies published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Applied Physics and the Canadian National Research Council, each documenting the adverse health and biological effects of radio frequencies emitted by cell phone towers on people living less than 50m (about 164 feet) from the towers.

“These effects include cardiovascular problems, skin complaints, fatigue, sleep disturbance, memory loss, visual disruptions, depression, dizziness, and increases in cancer risk,” the petition said.

“International regulations stipulate a distance of between 50 m and a quarter of a mile away from residential homes where these towers should be located. This tower in Olive Lodge Road, is only 30 feet away from the nearest home. We demand its immediate removal.”

emmanueljoseph@barbadostoday.bb