PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. — Joy Aiton has lived in the Lucerne neighborhood of Greenacres for 25 years. In 2022, an AT&T cell tower suddenly popped up near her backyard.
WPTV first told you about a cell tower being built in Stuart last Thursday. Aiton reached out to us after our story aired.
"When I heard that on TV I thought 'Oh, they're doing this in a lot of areas too,'" shared Aiton.
Aiton says she was not notified about the tower years back.
"When you think that something is this close and they’re emitting some type of signals, I cannot help but believe it's going to have an effect on someone somehow," Aiton said.
We took the concerns of Aiton and those in Stuart to health experts. Dr. Andres Alvarez with Memorial Healthcare System specializes in oncology research.
"Cellphone towers are still relatively new," Alvarez said. "Many people and many scientists and physicians are looking for long-term health effects."
Alvarez said although it’s too early to tell if radiation is linked to cancer, people have reported side effects like headaches and migraines. He adds it’s new data they are looking into and it's a call to action.
"It’s so important that we need to follow, and we need to do some research about the effects of cellphone towers," Alvarez said.
WPTV contacted the town of Greenacres about the tower. In a statement to WPTV they said:
"Federal and state laws require local authorities to allow wireless providers access to public right-of-ways, with very limited grounds of denial.” - Town of Greenacres
AT&T also addressed the construction of the cell tower in Stuart. They say the action is part of their ongoing efforts to improve wireless service for our Florida customers.
"In Florida, we invested more than $5.4 billion in our network infrastructure from 2019-2023.” -AT&T
Either way, Aiton wants the cell tower removed.
"At the end of the day, I'd like that thing gone," urged Aiton. "Out of this. Away from me, far."
