Many New York City schools rank poorly on a new measure assessing risk of microwave radiation exposure to students from neighborhood cell phone antennas. Many schools, public and private, have antennas nearby and some have allowed antennas to be placed on school property.

The assessment of cell phone tower risk was prepared by concerned parents belonging to the new Campaign for Radiation Free Schools.  The parents utilized the new BRAG ranking methodology to grade individual schools on radiation exposure potential. The BRAG Antenna Ranking of Schools report was released on April 28th by Magda Havas, PhD of Trent University in Canada in collaboration with www.ElectromagneticHealth.org, Citizens for Health, Moms for Safe Wireless and EMR Policy Institute. Ranking over 6,000 U.S. schools in state capitols and Washington, D.C., it also teaches parents how to assess their children’s school in any location, or in any home or office location. To learn to BRAG rate a school Click Here.

The metrics used by the BRAG school assessment are 1) distance to nearest cell phone antenna, 2) number of antennas within .25 mile and 3) number of antennas within .6 mile. For more information on the BRAG Antenna Ranking of Schools report Click Here.

In a New York City private school analysis, of the 35 private schools assessed, only two, those in the Bronx, ranked in the Green or Amber categories (lower risk), while three schools ranked in the Red category and 29 ranked in Black, the worst possible ranking.

Click Here to Download the BRAG Assessment of 35 New York City Private Schools.

Riverdale Country School was the best ranking school of the private schools assessed, with the closest antenna being .33 miles away, and no further antennas within .25 miles, and only 2 within .6 mile of the school.  Also of note, the New York Times reported children at Riverdale recently participated in a ‘time out’ for texting.  See “Encouraging the Text Generation to Rediscover Its Voice” by Susan Dominus, April 26, 2010.

A BRAG assessment of the New York public schools prepared earlier by Dr. Havas and students can be found by Clicking Here. Similar poor results on the BRAG scale were found for public schools.

The Campaign for Radiation Free Schools is a new Facebook community with the aim of creating optimal learning environments for children by working toward the goal of microwave free schools. New York parents interested in learning more about this issue can sign up for the Campaign for Radiation Free Schools at http://snurl.com/vzt9e and listen to past teleclass recordings there. Parents interested in supporting the grass roots mobilizing effort please contact Emily@electromagnetichealth.org.

Finally, please note the President’s Cancer Panel report issued this week stated that “the true burden of environmentally induced cancers has been grossly underestimated” and named cell phones and other wireless technologies as potential causes of cancer that demand further research and precaution. For further information on the importance of safety with cell phones and other wireless technologies Click Here.

Click Here for a CBS News clip re. President’s Cancer Panel report featuring a New York City ‘Measuring Mom’.