Residents Protest 20-Meter Telecom Tower Over Health Concerns
A day in the streets to block the installation of a telephone repeater antenna. A blockade carried out by residents of via Costabella, the panoramic area of Cisano and Bardolino, who yesterday blocked the access road to a private estate now hosting a mobile measurement station: a twenty-meter-high lattice tower of a new telephone company.
Residents strongly opposed to the installation of the system, to the extent that they submitted a report-complaint to the Municipality demanding the dismantling of the lattice tower and its possible relocation to distant, uninhabited areas.
The document, signed by about seventy local inhabitants, states that with the new system they are exposed to risks of electromagnetic pollution and are therefore worried about the carcinogenic risks associated with magnetic fields and the numerous alarming findings relating to diseases such as brain tumors and leukemia—especially in children—caused by exposure to this type of pollution.
Scientific Findings and Citizens’ Demands
These fears and concerns are supported, as detailed in the report, by the studies from the Italian Higher Institute of Health (Istituto superiore di sanità) and analyses conducted by the University of Heidelberg.
While requesting the Municipality to revoke any permits immediately, the signatories announce that, should there be any violations or omissions, they are firmly prepared to take legal action in all legal forums to defend their health and that of all residents in the area.
Political Inquiries and Proposals
The issue of repeaters is at the center of an interrogation-motion presented by the minority council group “Bardolino oltre il Duemila”, urging Mayor Armando Ferrar! and the city council to limit the provisional permit for measurement tests in via Costabella from six months to just one.
At the same time, the questioners ask to know the results of the magnetic wave emission tests conducted by the Local Health Unit, planned once a year under the agreement with Omnitel for the repeater installed in via Casetta Fossa.
The interrogation-motion, to be discussed at the next City Council meeting, highlights concerns about citizens’ health: “endangered by the proliferation of these horrendous repeaters”. It also urges the mayor to form a working group tasked with examining various options for siting the systems across the territory.
The proposal from the minority group suggests a single, possibly uniform location for all repeaters, to be selected by the City Council after consulting experts on the levels of electromagnetic emissions across the entire municipal area.