Killer Apartment Vs. Persistent Microwave Exposure? 791
An anonymous reader writes "I am considering buying a penthouse apartment in Manhattan that happens to be about twenty feet away from a pair of panel antennas belonging to a major cellular carrier. The antennas are on roughly the same plane as the apartment and point in its direction. I have sifted through a lot of information online about cell towers, most of which suggest that the radiation they emit is low-level and benign. Most of this information, however, seems to concern ground-level exposure at non-regular intervals. My question to Slashdot is: should the prospect of persistent exposure to microwave radiation from this pair of antennas sitting twenty feet from where I rest my head worry me? Am I just being a jackass? Can I, perhaps, line the walls of the place with a tight metal mesh and thereby deflect the radiation? My background is in computer engineering — I am not particularly knowledgeable about the physics of devices such as these. Please help me make an enlightened decision."
Easy (Score:5, Funny)
Tin foil suit.
These guys found the prefect solution... (Score:3, Funny)
...for your problem.
Right here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R1pv16G-liw [youtube.com]
Re:If you are worried about it... (Score:5, Funny)
Buy it (Score:4, Funny)
1) Buy it. ...
2) Sue phone company
3)
4) profit!!!!!!!
I'm not an RF engineer (Score:1, Funny)
But RF is mostly LoS (Line of Sight), anything blocking is reflected, absorbed or transmissive.
If you have solid walls (eg concrete), I wouldn't worry about it. Glass, you should be okay. But if it's like wood or plaster, the particles in these materials don't really block anything, so it's mostly transmissive. That's why you may get great reception in a wood frame house, but not in it's basement.
Basic analogy:
If you put a translucent material in front of a lightbulb, you can see the lightbulb, but if you put metal foil, you can see around the foil. Therefor you reduce, but not eliminate your exposure.
If you are seriously worried, grab a CFL tube or a large fluorescent light and hold it outside and inside the building. If it actually glows outside the building, I'd be wary. If it glows inside the building, don't buy it.
Re:Buy it (Score:5, Funny)
3) win lawsuit
cell tower next to village (Score:5, Funny)
Mobile company raised cell tower next to some village. Locals complained about health problems caused by this tower. When contacted cell company CEO replied:
- That's nothing. Wait and see what happens when we turn it on.
Get a gun. (Score:5, Funny)
Ask the landlord to relocate the cell-phone towers.
This strategy is quite effective in dealing with obstinate landlords. I should know since I'm serving time for 1 count of voluntary manslaughter.
Here's a tip... (Score:5, Funny)
If your microwave popcorn starts to pop before you turn the microwave on, it's probably not safe.
a jackass? (Score:2, Funny)
Probably.
Re:If you are worried about it... (Score:4, Funny)
Don't worry until you have had a radiation team doing measurements in your apartment and found out that the levels are near what's considered unhealthy.
But be prepared to find out that your apartment is considered unfit for living.
Re:If you are worried about it... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:You make an awful lot of money for an engineer (Score:2, Funny)
Duh. The point of the article was not celltower radiation, but to let everyone know that he has a penthouse in Manhattan.
Tomorrow I'm going to ask what sort of MP3 player to get for my Ferrari.
Re:If you are worried about it... (Score:5, Funny)
Look on the bright side: if he really does die from the microwave radiation, he won't have to worry about resale value.
Comment removed (Score:3, Funny)
Re:If you are worried about it... (Score:5, Funny)
Darn it, all I can find is aluminum foil!
Curse you government! I see what you're doing!
Re:Yes, you are being a jackass (Score:5, Funny)
Amateur radio operators have been using devices that can put out 5 to 1500 watts since the 1930s (possibly earlier)
Yeah, and look at what all that radiation has done to them. It's turned them into hams.
Re:If you are worried about it... (Score:5, Funny)
If he's buying it he won't have a landlord and he won't be a tenant, moron.
Well (Score:3, Funny)
Your first hint should be that the apartment is for sale because everyone in it died of leukemia...
Re:Get a gun. (Score:5, Funny)
Wait... if you're serving time for voluntary manslaughter, that means your strategy is NOT effective, since obviously the landlord did not do what you wanted him to do (otherwise, why shoot him?).
But then again, you have a gun and you're willing to use it... I'm sure your strategy is the best strategy ever. No really.
...
Please don't hurt me.
Re:If you are worried about it... (Score:5, Funny)
What you need are magnets! It's like how a motor works, but in reverse.
No, not like a dynamo. More like the deflector dish on the Enterprise.
Just don't cross the streams. Never cross the streams.
Unless wearing waders.
Re:If you are worried about it... (Score:2, Funny)
Yes, don't worry, I was born under such antennas and was left without consequenceesesesesesesesewseseseses
Re:On the upside, no worries about poor reception (Score:3, Funny)
Re:If you are worried about it... (Score:5, Funny)
Alu-min-i-um, you insensitive colonial.
No worries: if it was unsafe, I am sure that the cellular industry would tell you.
Re:Conductive films, cloths, or plastics... (Score:3, Funny)
There is a product called Scotch-Tint that is a EMF reducer for windows.
Does it work on Linux?
Re:Buy it (Score:2, Funny)
This may be the only way you'll get any kind of AT&T Reception for your nifty cool iPhone in Manhattan...assuming that it's an AT&T Tower pointing at you, of course.
Biology vs electronics (Score:3, Funny)
Also, recall that the power density drops by the square of the distance from the antenna. So, if you measure the power at one micron away from the antenna, it will be twice the strength you'd get if you measure it two microns away. Extend this out, and at 3 microns, you're down to 1/8th the power, 4 microns = 1/16th. At 20 feet, you should be all the way down to 1 / 3,716,121,600,000th the original power, or about one three-trillionth the original power. Right? So nothing to worry about.
Re:If you are worried about it... (Score:1, Funny)
Darn it, all I can find is aluminum foil!
Curse you government! I see what you're doing!
You won't be able to find it in the United States (hmm, I wonder why...), but I hear aluminium foil is a perfectly adequate substitute for tin.
I know what hams are (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Yes, you are being a jackass (Score:3, Funny)
Amateur radio operators have been using devices that can put out 5 to 1500 watts since the 1930s (possibly earlier)
Yes, but this is known to cause madness. Check out the evidence:
http://www.w8mrc.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/ham_car_inside.jpg [w8mrc.com]
Available living space in Manhattan (Score:3, Funny)
The first clue that something's up is that it's available. Previous tenants doubtlessly died. Or went crazy . . . and died in a hail of gunfire. Or were taken over by the government and sent to do a mission . . . and died at the hands of Iranian intelligence.
The hows and the whats are meaningless . . . if you get that place, you are going to die.
In conclusion, you are exposed to radiation every day -- don't be a pussy.
Re:If you are worried about it... (Score:4, Funny)
But if he does, they are more likely to be mutants. (99% chance of them being bad mutations, but that .1% chance that he will be the father of the new master race....)
Re:If you are worried about it... (Score:3, Funny)
And here people have prejudice against mobile home dwellers. Imagine all that aluminum protecting them day and night!
Re:Get a gun. (Score:3, Funny)
His strategy did work, he has solved his housing problem. Free rent no less!
Re:If you are worried about it... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:If you are worried about it... (Score:5, Funny)
Create a parabolic dish, so that you can nail some poor schmuck in jersey with roaming charges. (so poor that his cell phone charges for roaming)..
enjoy
Storm