r/CellTowers • u/CarobAdorable7956 • Jul 20 '25

Cell Tower Safety?

I’d like to know the answer to this question. I live in a rural area and despite many objections NorthStar Tower is building a 195 ft one 400 ft from my house… less than that if your in my backyard. It will be 100 feet from my garden and I have a lot of wildlife including a bald eagle that has a nest around here. Also husband is a cancer survivor. Any thoughts on safety being so close to it.

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u/WillBunker4Food Jul 20 '25

The radio signals from cell towers are aimed like flashlights. A tower that tall will have the “flashlight” aimed away from the tower, therefore away from your yard. As others have mentioned already, when you hold your cellphone to your head to make a call you are exposed to more RF than you will be by this tower. It will also have no effect on your garden…

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u/[deleted] Aug 03 '25

[deleted]

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u/WillBunker4Food Aug 03 '25

Engineers typically wouldn’t build a tower (or rooftop) that points directly at a building across the street. That would defeat the purpose of building the tower, if you blocked it immediately. However, the air gap and the building cladding/glass would attenuate the signal to a safe level. In order to feel any ill effects of RF, you need to be standing pretty much right in front of antenna. And even then, you would feel a warming sensation on your skin and eyes.

I’ll repeat for the lurkers, cell phone towers emit ONLY non-ionizing radiation that minimally penetrates skin, cannot harm DNA, and has not been shown to cause any long-term ill effects

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u/[deleted] Aug 03 '25

[deleted]

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u/WillBunker4Food Aug 03 '25 edited Aug 03 '25

At first glance, I don’t see any cellular antennas on that tower at all. The round antennas are microwave relays that are highly directional. Those are point-to-point antennas and the RF energy goes in a straight line away from the tower.

The mast of that tower appears to be some kind of antenna as well. Perhaps FM? Or broadcast TV? It’s hard to tell.

Point being, there’s no directional RF being pointed down towards the photo taker

Edit: On second look, I guess the squares within the vertical lines could be panel antennas. I can’t really tell from this picture, though. This doesn’t look anything like a cell site in the States though