Stop 5G Together Illinois

What Our Officials Need to Know

On 4/12/2018, Illinois passed a pre-emptive state law, SB1451- Small Wireless Facilities Deployment Act, that took away the rights of local municipalities to govern the 5G wireless rollout based on health and safety issues. Again, on June 1st, 2021 at 1:00 AM, Illinois government officials pushed bill HB3743 (see page 86) through the state legislature to extend the Small Wireless Facilities Deployment Act while intentionally ignoring and excluding the voices of our coalition and leadership team for months throughout the legislative process.

Listed in the points below are the many risks, challenges and problems that the Small Wireless Facilities Deployment Act continues to cause for Illinois municipalities and residents across the state. This legislation gives Big Telecom the unprecedented ability to force the placement of hundreds of wireless facilities in front of homes in residential areas, leaving residents without any recourse and municipalities without any means of governing or monitoring this technology. In doing so, residents and communities will continue to be completely unprotected from the adverse impacts to property values, aesthetics, safety and health. Local control must be restored.

 Please know that not having a state law regarding small wireless facilities will not prevent or block the rollout of 5G/4G wireless technology in Illinois. Many other states across the country do not have a state bill that streamlines the rollout of 5G/4G wireless facilities and these states are still successfully deploying technology to keep their residents connected. We ask that our elected officials vote for legislation that restores local control to allow the safe, efficient deployment of 5G technology based on the true need of each individual municipality. 

We support protections for the constituents of Illinois:

1. Illinois residents do not want a cell tower up to 65-feet tall in front of their homes or on the easement of their property. HB2379 allows this to continue to happen and our municipalities are powerless to stop it. Local control must be restored.
2. Installing 4G/5G small wireless facilities every 2  to 10 homes on the rights of way or easements of private property decreases the value of the property by up to 20%.
3. Constituents and property owners should have a choice regarding this technology since this infrastructure will adversely impact their property values.
4. Not all Illinois constituents want this technology in their residential neighborhoods, especially when the cell towers need to be placed every 2 to 10 homes potentially on private property without constituent consent.
5. Verizon alone has proposed an installation of 143 small wireless facilities in Hinsdale. (See map below.) All towns in your district will be similarly blanketed with wireless facilities by multiple carriers if HB2379 is approved.

   
6. The continued rollout of 4G/5G small wireless infrastructure poses several risks related to cybersecurity, privacy, home property values, village aesthetics, the environment, energy usage, human health and safety.
7. There are currently no safety studies proving that 5G wireless is safe for people, animals or the planet. The industry has not backed any independent safety studies to assess the biological effects or health impacts of 5G wireless technology as discussed by Mr. Gillen, Executive Vice-President of the CTIA (Cellular Telecommunications & Internet Association) and US Senator Blumenthal at a US Senate hearing on 5G wireless. 

We support local control:

1. HB2379 forces municipalities to accept small wireless applications.
2. Not having a state law will not stop the advancement of this technology in your district.  Your municipalities will still be able to work with telecom to deploy the needed 4G/5G equipment to allow full connectivity without inundating and unnecessarily forcing hundreds of wireless facilities on communities where it is not needed. 
3. The deployment of this technology must be based on the individual needs of each community which is not a one-size fits all solution.
4. Our municipalities need to be able to work with telecom to find the least intrusive place for these towers, while still allowing all residents access to wireless technology based on the true needs of each community. 
5. We have spoken to many municipalities and they say their hands are tied because of SB1451. They want local control restored.
6. Click here to review letters from President Alice Gallagher of Western Springs written to several mayoral and municipal conferences urging them to contact their state legislators to request support for proposed legislation that provides more local control.

Infrastructure, Size and Emissions:

1. Small wireless facilities are not necessarily small. Under HB2379, a small wireless facility can include everything from a small cell up to a macro tower.
2. 5G wireless service is not replacing 4G wireless service. Even more 4G infrastructure needs to be added because 5G will not work without the support of 4G.
3. 5G uses up to 3X more energy.
4. Telecom is not required to go back and take emission readings on any 4G/5G wireless equipment they install.
5. We worked with one of the top telecommunication attorneys in the country who has told us that he has many cases where 5G cell towers up to 65 feet tall are being installed just feet from peoples’ homes.  Emissions levels have been checked and, in some cases, the readings far exceed the FCC limits. People are getting sick.

FCC and their guidelines:

1. While the FCC does require that 5G cells meet public exposure guidelines, the guidelines are insufficient and haven’t been updated since 1996 (25 years ago) when 2G was the current standard.
2. The FCC was sued by EHT (Environmental Health Trust) and CHD (Children’s Health Defense) regarding their outdated guidelines. On 8/13/21, the federal court ruled that the FCC public exposure guidelines were “capricious, arbitrary and not evidence-based”.
3. The FCC is a captured agency.