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Cellular One had done more than run roughshod over the aesthetics of their bucolic neighborhood.			USA
Contamination level: Feeling violently sick all the time.
Author: Susan and Larry Stankavich	Created: 18 Nov 2005	Updated: 18 Nov 2005	Viewed: 4202 time(s)
Larry built their home 27 years ago and says they can never replace it. They're going to fight. But so far, it looks like a losing battle -- one in which they're losing their health, peace of mind, and their entire savings of $20,000.
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Fatigue and dizziness have become a matter of course.	Created: 18 Nov 2005
On Christmas Eve of 1996, Larry Stankavich and his wife, Susan, looked out the dining room window of their Duanesburg, New York home. Rising in the southwest, just barely visible above the 50-foot pines that border their property, was a large network of crisscrossing steel beams. The emerging monolith looked dreadfully out of place in the rural hills of Duanesburg. It would take Larry and Susan close to a month to discover that this unexpected gift had come from Cellular One of Albany, New York. Even the town supervisor claimed to know nothing about it. On December 31st, before it was even completed, the tower was fitted with a microwave dish and activated to carry analog cellular phone signals. This enormous steeple of sorts would then rise another 75 feet until it reached its full stature of 250 feet in February of 1997. And it was later that month that the 15 households within 1400 feet of the tower began to suspect that Cellular One had done more than run roughshod over the aesthetics of their bucolic neighborhood. First Larry noticed pressure in his head. Not prone to headaches, he suddenly began experiencing a regular and intense pain that started at the base of his skull and spread from ear to ear. He noticed a grittiness in his eyes every time he washed his face. At first he didn't suspect that the radiation beaming toward his home might have something to do with his sudden and unusual complaints. When Susan started having the same strange headaches, they didn't know what to think. Then one evening Susan, who was well past menopause, had a hot flash to beat all hot flashes. Her face flushed red, started tingling, and felt like it was on fire. Susan ran to Larry who was in the kitchen. T hey looked at each other dumbfounded and horrified. Larry's face too was crimson and so hot that it hurt. Something was very wrong. Initial doctor's visits turned up nothing out of the ordinary. However, Larry began noticing that he felt better whenever he left the house to manage the fencing business that he started in 1972. Susan, however, who did clerical work for the business from home, was experiencing no relief. New complaints began to surface. They both started having trouble sleeping, and Susan's usually normal blood pressure began to soar. At 3 a.m. on February 16, her blood pressure rose to 190/110 and was accompanied by frightening heart palpitations. Larry drove Susan far from the tower until her blood pressure returned to normal around 6 in the morning. Susan and Larry felt awful, and by this time they suspected that the Cellular One installation might be to blame. A meeting with neighbors living within the shadow of the giant tower substantiated their suspicion -- many of them were suffering with the same symptoms. Twenty-one months later, it's even worse. The Stankaviches and their neighbors complain of hearing high-pitched sounds that are always followed by waves of extreme nausea. Fatigue and dizziness have become a matter of course, and now, hearing loss and joint pain, especially in the knees, are plaguing many residents. The Stankaviches can no longer use the top story of their home where their symptoms become more pronounced. Some neighbors have actually moved into their cellars. Two homes have already been sold at a loss, and one more is on the market. The Stankaviches, however, are determined not to be driven out. Larry built their home 27 years ago and says they can never replace it. They're going to fight. But so far, it looks like a losing battle -- one in which they're losing their health, peace of mind, and their entire savings of $20,000.
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