Mapping the various sources of wireless electromagnetic radiation is only the "tip of the iceberg" (Will that have meaning when there are no icebergs left?) in terms of potential health effects. The towers mapped here were gathered from a public FCC database available online at: http://www.fcc.gov/wtb/geographic/fcc_db.html. This database was last updated August, 2000 and may not include all towers, especially those on military land.

For a more comprehensive accounting of the multiple sources of potentially negative ecological and health effects, an Ecological and Health Risk Atlas, one could (and should) add such things as Toxic Release Inventory (TRI) facilities and releases, Superfund sites, Hazardous waste generators and handlers, DOD and DOE toxics, Permit Compliance System (water polluters), AIRS (releases of criteria air pollutants) and the like. An example of this is the work we did several years ago in Silicon Valley. See this project at: https://mapcruzin.com/svtc_mult/index.html.

One should also incorporate data from EPA's cumulative exposure project , http://www.epa.gov/oppecumm/, and the Risk-Screening Environmental Indicators, http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/env_ind/. The first database provides the cumulative exposure from multiple sources and chemicals by census tract for the entire U.S. The second weighs TRI releases by their relative toxicity. Unfortunately both of these EPA products do not use current data and it does not appear that they will be updated soon if at all. See a project we did using the Cumulative Exposure Project data at https://mapcruzin.com/svtc_cep/.

There is yet more to the tale. Data from the Cancer Atlas could be added to help determine potential health effects. Various ecological databases and inventories could be gathered to help ascertain the effect on animals and plants. Clusters of various health problems could be determined at the local level. Also, one should add sources of radiation such as nuclear power plants, weapons facilities, DOE facilities (Hanford, etc.), and the transportation of radioactive waste. And then, there are the sources of electromagnetic radiation from the network of power generation and distribution to consider.

Finally, the negative effects are not distributed equally. The poor and many minority groups of our population suffer greater risks than others. One should also do a comprehensive environmental justice analysis using U.S. Census Data and the variety environmental data.

And then...the big question. Do we have the sufficient will and power required to critically view our lives and our institutions, break from the status quo, and make substantive changes that will result in reducing the ecological and health effects and distribute more equitably those that remain?

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