Residents Claim Weight of Base Stations is Damaging Their Building

Tenants of a residential block of flats in New York city, USA have complained to their local authorities after cracks started appearing in the walls after a second base station was installed on the roof of the building.

The roof of the building had a T-Mobile base station installed back in 2006, but when the AT&T base station was added to the building last year, cracks started appearing in the walls and the tenants grew concerned that the weight of the towers and 20 antennas were the cause of the problems.

However, Roger Entner, an industry analyst with Nielsen, told the New York Times that the cellphone antennas were relatively light and the base stations not unduly heavy. "The base station only weighs a couple of hundred pounds - it's like three fat men," he said. "If that is cracking the stuff, the building has way bigger problems."

The tenants also claimed that the antennas were putting out excessive amounts of radio emissions, but chose not to add that to a lawsuit they are planning as it would have automatically moved the jurisdiction from the local government to the federal government.

On the web: New York Times

Article published on 22nd August 2010