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Hinsdale Neighbors Fight Plans To Install 5G Cell Service, Citing Health Worries

HINSDALE, Ill. (CBS) -- Downloads will improve and cell service will get better, so everyone wants 5G faster internet – right?

Wrong.

5G internet also means more cellphone towers – which will appear every 12 homes in some neighborhoods. As CBS 2's Jermont Terry reported Monday night, some in west suburban Hinsdale are not on board because they question the health risks.

In Hinsdale, wooden sticks are already in the ground where cell companies intend to put up cellphone towers. But the towers will not be 20 or 30 feet high and soaring over all the houses, and that is leaving some believing there is a bigger price to pay for downloading faster.

Paige Glendinning, Christine Trainer, and Fariha DiPasquale are all Hinsdale moms. The trio is on a mission to stop 5G from coming to town.

"This could be really bad," DiPasquale said.

They said the 5G proposal does not just affect Hinsdale - Western Springs, Naperville, and Schaumburg would also be affected.

A few months back, those wooden sticks popped up in yards throughout the western suburbs.

"That was placed here by Verizon as a proposed site for a 5G transmitter," Glendinning said.

Wireless companies insist 5G is expected to be 100 times faster than current speeds. But in order for the bands to travel, more transmitters are needed in closer proximity, and thus, the signal will be carried on smaller towers that can fit on top of a light pole.

"We are not against technology," Trainer said.

But the Stop 5G group questions just how safe all these smaller towers will be for those who walk and live nearby.

"But before we become sort of the canary that is subjected to all of this, we want to actually have that data on safety be proven," DiPasquale said.

Many of the towers are expected to be near schools.

"And we know from other levels of technology far below the 5G levels that bone marrow of a child absorbs 10 times the radiation of an adult," Glendinning said.

The companies pushing 5G insist what the towers transmit is safe – but there is no concrete testing leaning for or against it, and until then, the Stop 5G group believes the project should halt.

Fliers are popping up. The concerned moms expect hundreds to attend a town hall on Wednesday.

"We want people to be just educated on what 5G is, what the technology is, and what the rollout means for our communities, and what they can do about it," Trainer said.

Besides the potential health concern, people don't want ugly cell towers in their front yards. They are concerned the towers will bring down property values.

The town hall on the subject will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday at The Community House, at 415 W. 8th St. in Hinsdale. For more, click here.

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