SOUNDING THE HORN: THE CONDUCTOR’S BRIEF: (A fast, clear summary of the key takeaways to keep you informed on the go)
Theodora Scarato, now Director of Wireless Environmental Health Sciences, has spent over a decade at Environmental Health Trust fighting cell tower expansion and data center buildout.
Data centers are environmental and public health disasters, forever chemicals, heat islands, water consumption, diesel generator pollution, and EMF documented up to 50 miles away.
The FCC is run by three industry insiders pursuing full deregulation, stripping local communities of zoning control, environmental review, and public right-of-way protections.
Elected officials in communities across the country have been signing NDAs with data center companies before residents are even notified, potentially illegal, and happening everywhere.
HR 2289, the bill that would have federally preempted local cell tower control, was stalled by public pressure, but the FCC is attempting an end-run around Congress with a three-person vote.
Tactical toolkit covered: FOIAs, property value assessments, planning commission ordinances, shareholder motions, errors and omissions in permits, and liens on officials acting unlawfully.
For the first time in decades of activism, the resistance is truly cross-partisan, left, right, rich, poor, rural, urban, all saying the same thing: enough.
Resource hub: ehsciences.org, search “data centers” for health summaries, key resources, and recommended ordinances.
I’ve been in this fight for a couple of decades now. Cell towers, wireless radiation, data centers, decades of watching this slow-motion takeover while most people went about their lives, trusting that someone in an agency somewhere was doing their job. They weren’t. They aren’t.
You know this.
But every once in a while, you meet someone who reminds you why this work matters, and more importantly, that we’re not losing.
Her name is Theodora Scarato. She’s the Director of Wireless Environmental Health Sciences and has been doing the deep, unglamorous, technically rigorous work at Environmental Health Trust for over a decade.
Environmental Health Sciences (EHS) is developing educational resources that examine the public health risks of the rapid expansion of data centers, with a focus on the increased electromagnetic field (EMF) exposure associated with the electrical infrastructure needed to power these facilities, including substations, transmission lines, backup power systems, and wireless communications equipment.
Theodora is not a screamer. She’s not performative. She doesn’t need to be. She just quietly knows more than almost anyone on the planet about what these towers, data centers, and the FCC’s deregulatory freight train are actually doing to us, and what we can do about it.
I called her a quiet lion before we even started recording. I meant it.
We covered a lot of ground. Here are just a few things that will stop you cold:
Those data centers aren’t bringing jobs. Theodora drove past the data center corridor in Virginia and described it as a graveyard, massive, lifeless buildings, skeleton crews, no trees, no life. Just server farms humming with forever chemicals, generating heat islands, gobbling water, and emitting EMF that Bloomberg documented up to 50 miles away. Not 500 feet. Fifty miles.
Your elected officials may have already signed away your rights, and can’t tell you. NDAs. Signed before you ever heard about the data center coming to your town. In some states, that may be a Brown Act violation. In others, communities are finding out only when the construction crews show up. Theodora and I talk about exactly what you do when that happens.
The FCC has three people making decisions that affect every single community in this country. Three. And all three are industry insiders. Theodora has traced the revolving door from Verizon to FCC chair and back again, and she published it in a peer-reviewed journal. When Ajit Pai (current head of the wireless industry association CTIA) introduced FCC Chair Brendan Carr at a recent industry conference and joked that he was introducing “the next head of CTIA”… yeah. That’s not a joke. That’s a press release.
But here’s what’s giving me real hope. For the first time in my years of activism, I am watching people from every corner of the political map, left, right, rich, poor, old, young, standing shoulder to shoulder and saying: not in my backyard, not on my land, not with my water. Billionaires in Tahoe are finding out they’re losing 78% of their power. Families who sank their life savings into retirement land, watching a data center go up on the fence line. They’re not going quietly.
Theodora gives you the tactical toolkit in this conversation, from FOIAs and property assessments to shareholder motions, planning commission ordinances, and the kind of hardball moves that made a county attorney pack her bags and walk. We both agree, simply five people can move the world if they know what they’re doing.
We’re all on the front lines now. You might as well know what you’re fighting with.
ABOUT THEODORA SCARATO
Theodora Scarato, Director of the Wireless and EMF Program, Environmental Health Sciences
Scarato is a leading expert in environmental health policy related to cell towers, wireless, and EMF. She has co-authored several scientific papers, and in addition to her work at Environmental Health Sciences, a leading scientific nonprofit, she also serves as a Special Expert to the International Commission on the Biological Effects of Electromagnetic Fields (ICBE-EMF).
Scarato has published several scientific papers on children’s environmental health, and her most recent publication, “U.S. Policy on Wireless Technologies and Public Health Protection: Regulatory Gaps and Proposed Reforms,” published in the journal Frontiers in Public Health, details the history of cell tower regulation in the US, the industry influence, deficiencies, gaps, and loopholes. This paper is perfect to send to your policymakers.
Scarato’s work was pivotal in the landmark 2021 federal case against the FCC regarding its outdated cell tower and wireless radiation guidelines, in which the court mandated the agency explain how its 30-year-old human exposure guidelines were adequate regarding children’s vulnerability, long-term exposure, and wildlife impacts. She is now involved in current efforts to get the FCC to respond to the 2021 Court mandate, as she is an individual petitioner in the case and has filed numerous scientific submissions to the FCC. More about Scarato here.
Environmental Health Sciences resources on data centers:
Stay updated with Theodora’s work at Environmental Health Sciences
Subscribe to the Wireless and EMF Program newsletter at Environmental Health Sciences to get the latest science and policy news.
Connect with Theodora on LinkedIn and Substack
Watch the full conversation. Then share it with someone who needs to hear it.
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