{"id":2446249,"date":"2019-07-11T22:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-07-12T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=309324"},"modified":"2019-07-11T22:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-07-12T04:00:00","slug":"5g-worries-rural-opioid-topics-at-club-20-summer-meetings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/5g-worries-rural-opioid-topics-at-club-20-summer-meetings\/","title":{"rendered":"5G worries, rural opioid topics at Club 20 summer meetings"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Western Slope leaders have cause to be concerned about how 5G transmitters will affect health and town property, but it could be some time before the technology comes to rural areas.<\/p>\n

The latest communications technology was only one of many topics discussed on the first day of summer policy meetings for the western Colorado advocacy coalition Club 20.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re all hearing about this hype, and you\u2019d better be ready for it,\u201d Virgil Turner, chair of Club 20\u2019s telecommunications committee, said at the meeting in Snowmass Village Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m here to tell you, it\u2019s going to be awhile before rural Colorado gets it,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s not coming in the next three months.\u201d<\/p>\n

Small cell 5G, or \u201cfifth generation\u201d transmitters, offer a higher bandwidth for high-speed mobile data downloads, but have drastically smaller coverage zones.<\/p>\n

Federal regulations allow mobile network providers to place antennas on public rights of way with little to no say in placement.<\/p>\n

Carbondale amended its development code in April to add certain requirements on wireless providers. Among them are to:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Camouflage future antennas, which currently are around 3 cubic feet.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Use existing light poles.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Require mobile providers to use the same location for multiple transmitters.<\/p>\n

Club 20 is interested in ways to allow for more local control. As it stands, it seems governments have local control, except when it\u2019s preempted by a federal agency, one member quipped.<\/p>\n

The high cost of placing these 5G transmitters makes it more economical for dense urban centers. In some places, Turner estimates, there could be 480 per square mile.<\/p>\n

The high cost means that networks will prioritize denser urban centers, giving time for technology to develop, according to Turner.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s going to eventually get to us, but we\u2019re probably going to see different technologies,\u201d Turner said.<\/p>\n

Aspen City Council member Rachel Richards said she has heard some constituents express concerns about the potential negative health effects of 5G, and wondered whether that has been studied.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are concerned about this, and I think when they start to see towers go up that close to their homes and streets, they will be banging on the table,\u201d Richards said.<\/p>\n

The potential health risk of 5G signals has gained attention recently, mostly because the true effects are unknown.<\/p>\n

The World Health Organization has classified standard mobile networks as \u201cpossibly\u201d a contributor to cancer in humans \u2014 in the same category with coffee and power lines.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe health concerns are real \u2014 we need to be thinking about this,\u201d Turner said. But the true effects may not be known for some time, according to Turner.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think we have science to back up the long-term health ramifications, but it is something we may regret years from now,\u201d Turner said.<\/p>\n

Fewer opioid prescriptions partial solution<\/p>\n

Data from some communities reveals a potential link between opioid prescriptions and suicide, Pattie Snidow, who works with the U.S. Department of Agriculture\u2019s Colorado office, told Club 20 committees.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs fewer prescriptions are being given, our suicide rates are going through the roof,\u201d Snidow said.<\/p>\n

Recent legislation has empowered practically every federal agency, including USDA, to address the opioid crisis in various ways.<\/p>\n

\u201cRural communities are deeply affected, deeply impacted by this issue, and a lot of the silent people affected by this issue are (agriculture) producers.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all pain management issue from beginning to end, whether it\u2019s emotional pain, psychological pain or physical pain,\u201d Snidow said.<\/p>\n

Medicaid prescriptions for opioids have dropped 50% in five years simply by closing loopholes, said Kim Bimestefer, executive director of Colorado Department of Health Care & Policy Financing.<\/p>\n

She agreed that reducing prescriptions is not a complete solution, and one way to address the addiction is by going after the companies that said \u201cthese opioids aren\u2019t addictive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve asked our attorney general\u2019s office to join every lawsuit we can. We need money to come back into the state, especially on opioids, to make sure we have money to fund treatment,\u201d Bimestefer said.<\/p>\n

Club 20, based in Grand Junction, is made up of member Western Slope government and business leaders. Policy meetings continue today at the Stonebridge Inn in Snowmass Village, with several sessions focused on transportation, tourism and outdoor recreation.<\/p>\n

tphippen@postindependent.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Western Slope leaders have cause to be concerned about how 5G transmitters will affect health and town property, but it could be some time before the technology comes to rural areas. The latest communications technology was only one of many topics discussed on the first day of summer policy meetings for the western Colorado advocacy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2446249","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-21 05:38:01","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2446249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2446249\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2446249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2446249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2446249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}