The biggest problem about cellphones and churches may not have to do with remembering to turn the phones off during services.
While no one in California keeps track, anecdotal evidence indicates that a growing number of churches in the state are contracting with telecommunications companies to put cellphone towers on the roof. The result is a few more dollars for the church and added health concerns for the congregation.
3rd– and 4th–generation wireless services require cell sites and towers to be closer together, and more wireless subscribers increase the need for more towers—all of which is confounded by ever-tougher government regulations on their placement. Some industry experts suggest that only one-third of the total number of cell sites and towers that will be needed have been built.
The hunt for new tower locations has led to churches and their conveniently towering steeples, often located in areas otherwise off-limits to telecom structures. The church loses a fraction of its religious property tax exemption for participating in the commercial enterprise, but the lease arrangement is still proving to be a moneymaker. Leases range from $2,000 to $4,000 per month
The towers are also proving to be lightening rods for controversy over the possible health hazards from radiation. While the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the National Cancer Institute have discounted links between cancer and wireless devices and radio-frequency energy, respectively, the World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer has taken a more skeptical view.
A May 2011 report “classified radiofrequency electromagnetic fields as possibly carcinogenic to humans (Group 2B), based on an increased risk for glioma, a malignant type of brain cancer1, associated with wireless phone use.”
Temple City rejected a cellphone tower at a church in a residential neighborhood in March 2010 and the Burbank City Council unanimously rejected a project in May to put 12 antennas in the Little White Chapel steeple, although a 2011 ordinance seemed to allow it. And parents at Sacred Heart Parish School in Rancho Cucamonga, citing health and safety issues, protested this month when the Diocese of San Bernardino agreed to let Verizon put a 45-foot tower on church grounds near the school.
Although some communities have resisted putting cellphone towers atop their churches, according to California Watch, some churches have assessed the market conditions and been pro-active in approaching telecom companies that they know are having problems finding a suitable site in their neighborhood. It’s a decision that is fraught with peril.
“Most churches don’t realize that that would affect their exemption,” said Eric Gayden, a senior assessment technician at the Orange County Assessor Department..
–Ken Broder
To Learn More:
Cellphone Companies Want to Put Towers Atop Churches (by Bob Pool, Los Angeles Times)
Churches Find Revenue Leasing Steeples to Cell Companies (by Kendall Taggart, California Watch)
Churches Steeples and Cell Towers (Steel in the Air)
IARC Classifies Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Fields as Possibly Carcinogenic to Humans (World Health Organization) (pdf)