{"id":"HHS-OASH-2026-0397-1056","number":"1056","name":"DE Martin","organization":"","posted":"2026-09-28T04:00Z","received":"2026-09-27T04:00Z","body":"Smart Bugs?\n\nDuring 2007-09, I worked outdoors building a house in a very remote area along Northern California’s Lost Coast, the longest stretch of undeveloped coastline in the continental United States.\n\nThe environment was an entomologist’s dream! Insects of every color, shape, size were abundant. Bats also were plentiful, given the availability of food.\n\nPrior to this time, no cellular service was available for miles in any direction.\n\nProgress finally caught up with this underserved area, and a communications tower was erected on a high hill overlooking forest, coastline, and sea. Known amongst locals as “The Evil Red Eye,” the tower was topped with red lights to alert small planes to its location.\n\nOver time, the availability of cellular service improved. Somewhat. \n\nBut as connectivity became more common, the beautiful abundance of insects became less so.\n\nThe bugs started disappearing—not the pesky ones, but the flashy flying exotic varieties became scarce before finally disappearing.\n\nAs their food source retreated, the bats likewise became less common.\n\nThe only environmental modification that could have caused these changes was the introduction of heretofore absent radio frequencies emanating from the tower.\n\nAre we to believe that—on a cellular level—these electromagnetic frequencies are any safer for us than they were for the bugs?","attachments":[],"attachment_inventory":true,"withheld":false,"source":"https://www.regulations.gov/comment/HHS-OASH-2026-0397-1056","tags":["exposure-places"],"source_hash":"17f18f4c5d119387fc78d51123f841efa71e982969f728b0c18968e0eca31552","slug":"exposure-places-comment-1056","classification":{"id":"HHS-OASH-2026-0397-1056","body_sha256":"3d3d8c064dc9f1d3391879cd74b275faee9206c915da20589130fc85676e7ff0","status":"ai_reviewed","primary_topic":"environment","topics":[{"id":"environment","evidence":"in the continental United States.\n\nThe environment was an entomologist’s dream! Insects of every color, shape, size were abundant. Bats also were plentiful, given the availability of food"},{"id":"infrastructure","evidence":"n.\n\nProgress finally caught up with this underserved area, and a communications tower was erected on a high hill overlooking forest, coastline, and sea. Known amongst locals as “The Evi"}],"summary":"Describes declining insect and bat abundance after a communications tower was introduced in a remote coastal area and attributes the changes to radiofrequency exposure.","reviewed_at":"2026-09-28T16:09:15Z","review_method":"Source-matched AI review of 101 new complete comment bodies with exact supporting passages; three attachment-dependent covering notes remain pending. Attachments and external links not reviewed.","review_source_sha256":"c903c2905c9864bcf9e5ca7eccb2d1b3b084887417650b0fcf90eecc0768d84c","source_url":"https://rfsafe.net/hhs-comments/data/catalog.json","scope":"Original comment body; attachments excluded"},"forum_topics":["environment","infrastructure"],"primary_topic":"environment","forum_title":"Describes declining insect and bat abundance after a communications tower was introduced in a remote coas…"}