Switzerland: "Thousands of Antennas Illegally Converted!"

"Thousands of antennas illegally converted!"

Legal opinion: conversion to adaptive antennas is no trivial matter
Press release: Schütz vor Strahlung, September 6, 2021 - auto-translation

Zurich, September 6, 2021 For a number of years now, mobile phone providers have been able to have minor changes to antennas approved by the cantonal specialist office using the “minority” procedure. But a new, independent report on behalf of the Conference of Building, Planning and Environment Directors (BPUK) now shows: The conversion to an adaptive antenna is not a trivial matter, but requires a proper building permit procedure. This also applies to the correction factor for adaptive antennas. This means that the ultra-fast and radiation-intensive 5G world remains just a vision for the time being.

Anyone who wants to renovate something in Switzerland needs a building permit. But so far this has only rarely been the case for mobile network operators. The following example may illustrate this: In 2008, a mobile network operator applied for the construction of a 3G antenna and received a building permit. Afterwards, at best, an acceptance measurement takes place on site. A good ten years later, an application was made to the canton to convert to 4G / 5G: replacement of the antenna body with slightly larger models on the outside and an addition with amplifiers. After completion of the renovation, an on-site inspection with corresponding measurements is "forgotten". In the context of such minor proceedings, neither the community concerned nor the population usually find out about the project. The canton approves this project in a small claims procedure and the mobile network operator is converting the system according to its plans. So much for our example. This shows that such small claims proceedings exist Fact sheet: Process options for the introduction of 5G on mobile radio systems 

Small claims proceedings curtail local residents' rights

From a legal point of view, the canton exempts mobile network operators from the building permit requirement in the context of a small claims procedure. But in our opinion it would have to do the opposite: If changes are made to adaptive antennas, it has to request a building permit procedure! Changes that have spatial consequences or (additionally) impair the environment require a building permit, usually from the municipality. In the example above, the number of frequency bands has doubled. In addition, the residents will from now on be radiated with an adaptive 5G antenna. Over their heads, the operators installed a completely new, dangerous technology . In doing so, the rights of those affected are being restricted in an inadmissible manner.

Hundreds of systems in agricultural zones have to be shut down

In non-construction zones, which also include agricultural zones, the case is even clearer: in several municipalities, adaptive antennas have already had to be taken out of service because they had been retrofitted in a minor process. Non-building zones are well and consistently protected by the Spatial Planning Act Art. 24: A building permit is required for every change. Every now and then, mobile network operators use the following trick to get the green light for a minor change from the responsible canton: All you have to do is ask the cantonal department that checks the technical aspects. In this way you elegantly bypass the building permit requirement!

Our research revealed that around 600 cell phone systems in agricultural zones across Switzerland were illegally converted to adaptive 5G . From a legal point of view, at least the adaptive antenna on these systems must be switched off again. It is particularly explosive that several cantons are blocking our requests for lists of adaptive 5G antennas in their agricultural zones. For their part, municipalities hardly react to our request to independently check all antennas so that they can be switched off if necessary. Today, this means that the population has to fight for an antenna to be switched off in complex procedures, which also means unnecessary additional work and trouble for the communities.

The Buebetrickli for loosening the limit values

For twenty years, mobile phone operators have been demanding a relaxation of the limits at regular intervals. Until today, they have been thwarted at all points. As early as 2002, SP National Councilor Simonetta Sommaruga announced: It was an impertinence how the telecom providers had tried to soften the limits for mobile phone antennas in the negotiations with threats, blackmail and defiance - driven by pure profit motives. In 2018, individual members of the Council of States even predicted the collapse of the entire mobile network in a few months! But the Council of States rejected a relaxation of the limits twice - and the prophecy of the Council of States did not come true. In 2020, Federal Councilor Simonetta Sommaruga then promised not to relax the limits, which is also what the vast majority of our population wants (85 percent of respondents in Mobiliar's representative "Digitalbarometer" survey).

After that, the mobile phone operators may well have thought: "Why not relax the limits by a trick like the small claims procedure?" For this purpose, they invented the correction factor and made it palatable to the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN). But according to reports, the cantons were never really enthusiastic about it. For years, they have emphatically promised the residents of antennas: The limit values will be complied with at all times. This is exactly how the word "installation limit" was understood for 20 years: in the sense of an absolute limit of radiation exposure emanating from an antenna.

The correction factor conceals the higher radiation exposure

As a reminder: The correction factor should enable mobile network operators to radiate up to ten times more than permitted and to comply with the limit values ​​averaged over only 6 minutes . We also call it the « cheating factor» because only the mobile network operators themselves and the competent authorities recognize that an antenna radiates more strongly than permitted by this factor. If you compare a previous location data sheet (technical description of the antenna with calculations of radiation exposure) with a new location data sheet, only two new fields are visible: Adaptive operation Yes / No and number of sub-arrays. These two details are intended to express that the antenna uses this correction factor. However, when calculating the radiation exposure of residents, this factor is excluded - and so the limit values ​​on paper appear to be adhered to.

Because practically everything stays the same on paper, the FOEN suggests that the operator can easily activate the correction factor. Neither minor changes nor building permits are required! But the FOEN is very wrong here. Because for the antenna residents, the situation changes considerably! Due to the rapid changes in the radiation properties, the very high peak loads and the new types of pulsations, these antennas pose a significantly greater health risk. From a legal point of view, an adaptive antenna changes the environmental impact considerably and is therefore subject to building permits.

What do these new findings mean for mobile network operators? In most cases you will have to start all over again if you want to use adaptive antennas with the correction factor. But whether the correction factor may ever be used is written in the stars: The FOEN lacks the competence to introduce this “Buebetrickli” to increase limit values! The Federal Council, on the other hand, which decides on the relevant ordinance, resolutely rejects a relaxation of the limit values. It is now up to the cantons, as enforcement authorities, to ensure that the current situation is handled uniformly and in a legally correct manner.

Media contact : Association for Protection against Radiation 

Rebekka Meier, President and Head of the Building Law 

Department rebekka.meier@schutz-vor-strahl.ch
032 652 61 61

Original press release in German:
https://schutz-vor-strahlung.ch/news/medienmitteilung-tausende-antennen-illegal-umgeruestet/