By Suzanne Burdick, Ph.D., childrenshealthdefense.org, 26 Feb. 2024, updated 27 Feb. 2024
In 2007, Marcia and Jason Haller — high school sweethearts who met in Duluth, Minnesota — bought their dream property north of Duluth to peacefully live close to nature and Marcia’s family.
Little did they know then that American Towers, AT&T and T-Mobile would soon build a cell tower just 900 feet from their home — a tower that would later forever change Marcia’s life as she knew it.
Nearly immediately after the cell tower was “upgraded” in 2019, Marcia became disabled from the intense levels of radiofrequency (RF) radiation emitted by the tower.
Since then, she has suffered 51 strokes, vision loss, hearing loss, headaches, sleep disruption, chronic fatigue and cognitive impairment. She experiences ongoing issues with balance, orientation and mobility.
Now, backed by the legal team in Children’s Health Defense’s (CHD) Electromagnetic Radiation (EMR) & Wireless program, Marcia plans to sue the companies operating the tower, under the Americans with Disability Act.
Marcia alleges that the companies must provide her with a “reasonable accommodation” and/or “modify their policies, practices or procedures” to comply with federal disability law.
Hers is the second in CHD’s strategic line of cases trying out new legal avenues for individuals suffering from RF radiation exposure.
The cases also draw attention to the need for better federal regulation of RF radiation and outline the scientific evidence that debunks the “RF radiation is safe” narrative.
W. Scott McCollough, lead litigator for the cases, told The Defender that Marcia’s legal team in January sent the telecom companies a demand letter and plans to file the initial complaint in her lawsuit later this month.
Marcia and Jay — who also have an 18-year-old son whose health they say has been impaired by the tower’s radiation — spoke to The Defender about Marcia’s illness and the importance of her legal battle in raising awareness that RF radiation can hurt people’s health.
‘Something’s wrong in my head’
In late September 2019, Marica and Jay noticed workmen doing a “major upgrade” on the 300-foot cell tower on the property adjacent to theirs.
Marcia, who at the time was in her third year of nursing school and worked as a certified nursing assistant at a hospital, said the work lasted about 10 days.
“They put a big crane up there,” said Jay, who runs a trucking business. “We had seen them go up there without a crane multiple times, but this was the first time where it was a major overhaul type thing.”
What exactly did the workers do?
“We’re thinking [they upgraded the tower for deploying] 5G,” Marcia said. “They [the companies] won’t admit to what they did. They say they don’t have to tell us.”
On the weekend after the workers completed the upgrade, Marcia was at home and began feeling dizzy and as if something “just didn’t feel right.”
She called Jay, telling him, “Something’s wrong in my head … I don’t know how to explain it. I just feel like crap.”
Did she need him to come home? No, she told him. “I’ll be fine.”
The physical sensation was “awful,” Marcia said. In addition to dizziness, she had headaches and nausea. “I couldn’t pick my head up off the pillow without the room spinning and feeling very sick.“
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https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/marcia-haller-cell-tower-rf-radiation-sickness/
