Dear Sir,

This week’s announcement (RG October 13 “Digicel brings in mobile cell tower to serve AC thousands”) that a mobile cell tower will be used to provide a boost to the wireless service needs of the throngs of spectators anticipated for this weekend’s Louis Vuitton America’s Cup World Series Bermuda prompts the following response from the Bermuda Environmental Sustainability Taskforce.

BEST is concerned about regulatory protocols which seem to be absent or ignored. In particular, BEST poses the following questions that have been unanswered by the Department of Planning, Department of Health or the Regulatory Authority:

1, How does this application differ from others, which enables it to avoid (sidestep) the normal processes of analysis and scrutiny?

2, How will emissions be monitored and measured, and by which agency?

3, How will the safety requirements of the FCC guidelines be adhered to?

4, How can these requirements be imposed on a tower that will be located and relocated to highly populated events?

We didn’t see any reference in the article to these important points, and so they remain unaddressed.

Thank you and BEST regards, KIM SMITH