{"id":14774,"date":"2019-03-14T00:33:37","date_gmt":"2019-03-14T07:33:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/?p=14774"},"modified":"2019-03-14T00:36:00","modified_gmt":"2019-03-14T07:36:00","slug":"fourth-ripon-student-has-cancer-parents-demand-removal-of-cell-tower-from-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/?p=14774","title":{"rendered":"Fourth Ripon student has cancer. Parents demand removal of cell tower from school"},"content":{"rendered":"
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MARCH 12, 2019 11:13 AM,<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Ripon, California, Unified School District is working with Sprint to move a cellular phone tower near Weston Elementary after four students were diagnosed with cancer and parents voiced their concerns. <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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By Akira Olivia Kumamoto<\/a> | Joan Barnett Lee<\/a> | Ken Carlson<\/span><\/p>\n

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The Ripon Unified School District said it is talking with a telecommunications company about moving a cellular phone tower from Weston Elementary School because of a public uproar over cancer cases at the campus.<\/p>\n

A fourth child who attends the school was diagnosed with cancer Friday. Some parents pulled their children from school, and many came out in force to a Ripon school board meeting Monday evening to demand action.<\/p>\n

In a prepared statement, board president Kit Oase said tests done on the tower found it was operating normally within safety standards.<\/p>\n

Monica Ferrulli, whose son was treated for brain cancer in 2017, said RUSD has cited an obsolete American Cancer Society study in keeping the tower in place since the controversy erupted two years ago. \u201cIt is just denial,\u201d Ferrulli told the board. She vowed that parents will continue to fight and keep their children out of the school.<\/p>\n

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About 200 parents packed the meeting, held in the Ripon City Council chambers. People who want the tower removed say four students and three teachers at Weston have been stricken with cancer. The kindergarten-through-eighth-grade school on Stanley Drive has 400 students.<\/p>\n

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Richard Rex, whose family lives across the street from Weston School, said a bump appeared on his 11-year-old son\u2019s abdomen a month ago. He said his son\u2019s classroom is near the tower.<\/p>\n

The parents first thought it was a skating injury. Instead of going to science camp, 11-year-old Brad was taken to doctors for examinations and tests that found a tumor wrapped around his liver. The boy now has a portal for starting cancer treatment, the parents said.<\/p>\n

Richard Rex said he\u2019s hearing different options for treating the cancer. \u201cThey said they can shrink it and cut it out. They\u2019re also talking liver transplant. It is very scary,\u201d Rex said.<\/p>\n

In the statement, Oase said the school district sympathized with the families. The statement said the district has no out clause in the 25-year lease agreement with Sprint, the tower\u2019s owner. The district and Sprint will have to mutually agree to relocation of the tower.<\/p>\n

RUSD receives a negligible amount of revenue from providing campus space for the tower, the statement said.<\/p>\n

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Adrienne Norton, representing Sprint, said the company\u2019s goal is providing wireless service that keeps businesses and residents connected in Ripon.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen it comes to the deployment of network infrastructure, we always strive to achieve a win\/win process with local municipalities and residents,\u201d Norton wrote in an email. \u201cWe have been working with the community in Ripon to address their concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n

Potential health effects from electromagnetic fields emitted by transmission lines or cell towers have been debated for years. The National Cancer Institute cites studies that EMFs are a possible human carcinogen based on research looking at childhood leukemia. According to the institute\u2019s website, however, no increased risks of brain tumors or other cancers were revealed by epidemiological studies in Europe.<\/p>\n

Oase said he would talk with a San Joaquin County epidemiologist about the situation at Weston School. County Health Officer Kismet Baldwin said Tuesday the county does no surveillance on new cancer diagnoses. That\u2019s the responsibility of the cancer registry with the California Department of Public Health.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have not received anything from the cancer registry,\u201d Baldwin said. \u201cWe don\u2019t know how many newly diagnosed cancer cases there were before the cell tower was installed and how many since it was installed.\u201d<\/p>\n

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According to notices posted by RUSD, the school district hired engineers for an evaluation in 2018 on the cell tower\u2019s compliance with guidelines for limiting human exposure to electromagnetic radiation. The testing found exposure levels for people nearby were below the federal standard, the notices says.<\/p>\n

Hammett & Edison Inc. was hired to perform the testing.<\/p>\n

Ferrulli, who watched her son\u2019s cancer relapse last year, countered that parents arranged for testing that showed much higher readings. The Cochran law firm of Los Angeles has been hired to look at health effects of the cell tower and water contamination as a possible source. \u201cWe are not so naive as to rule out other environmental factors,\u201d Ferrulli said.<\/p>\n

Richard Rex wants to see the tower moved away from the schoolchildren.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a terrible thing,\u201d he said. \u201cHow many children with cancer will it take?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Read more here: https:\/\/www.modbee.com\/news\/article227459649.html?fbclid=IwAR1srGeGp8GeLelOTk5xRYgFUdCv_8Hc6zlJDOaKkZdy95qmsPGTt88C6zw#storylink=cpy<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MARCH 12, 2019 11:13 AM, Ripon, California, Unified School District is working with Sprint to move a cellular phone tower near Weston Elementary after four students were diagnosed with cancer and parents voiced their concerns. By Akira Olivia Kumamoto | Joan Barnett Lee | Ken Carlson The Ripon Unified School District said it is talking […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[345,127,454,107,291,21,336,558,28,317,3,680,23,326,289],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-4g","category-antenna","category-antenna-removal","category-california-2","category-california-usa-2","category-cancer","category-cancer-health_and_safety","category-cancer-cluster","category-cell-tower","category-children","category-health_and_safety","category-ripon","category-school","category-small-cells","category-usa-2"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14774"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14777,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14774\/revisions\/14777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}