Reports tinnitus, headaches, hair loss and ear burns after nearby rooftop antennas began operating, reloc…

Q2 - Perspective: Individual consumer and resident of New York City. Not affiliated with any organization. A fuller version of this comment is attached. Q3 - Personal experience 3(a) Source: In 2019, four cellular antennas were installed on the roof of the building immediately adjacent to mine, approximately ten feet from my bedroom. They initially operated as 4G transmitters. In December 2019, T-Mobile activated 5G on the same site. 3(b) Timing/duration: I slept roughly eight hours a night in the room closest to the antennas. I was not notified of the installation and did not learn the antennas were there until after my symptoms began. I stopped sleeping in the apartment in January 2020 and formally moved out in April 2020. 3(c) Effects: After the antennas began 4G operation in 2019, I developed intense tinnitus, frequent headaches, and noticeable hair loss. In December 2019, when 5G was activated, a new symptom appeared: burns on my ears with no apparent cause - no sun, no heat source, no contact with anything that could explain them. 3(d) Onset relative to exposure: I had none of these symptoms before 2019. Tinnitus, headaches, and hair loss began during 4G operation. The ear burns appeared only when 5G was activated and had never occurred before. Two distinct changes in exposure at the site were each followed by a distinct change in my symptoms. Hair loss and burns resolved after I left. Tinnitus and headaches persist to this day. 3(e) Medical evaluation: My primary care physician had no explanation for the ear burns and asked whether I had been on vacation, though I had not traveled and sunburn confined to the ears made no sense. No cause was identified, no workup done, no diagnosis given. Tinnitus and headaches were never evaluated. Through my own research I later learned that localized burns are a recognized effect of sufficiently intense RF/microwave exposure and that close-range cell transmitters were a plausible source. My clinician had no framework for even considering RF exposure. That is itself a gap HHS should address. 3(f) Exposure reduction and results: Once I learned the antennas were there, I stopped sleeping in my bedroom and slept in my kitchen, the room farthest away. By January 2020 I had stopped living in the apartment; I moved out formally in April 2020. After leaving, tinnitus and headaches improved substantially but never fully resolved. They recur strongly whenever I am near an RF source and subside when I move away. My symptoms have tracked proximity to RF sources consistently since 2019. Being driven from my bedroom and then my home, with no recourse, was a serious hardship. 3(g) Documentation: I have dated photographs of the ear burns from December 2019 and can provide them on request. Q13(a): The 4G antennas alone were associated with tinnitus, headaches, and hair loss. Adding 5G at the same site and distance was followed by a new, different effect on my skin. HHS should treat adding 5G to an existing site as a change in exposure in its own right. Q15(a), 15(d), and Q9: Antennas were placed ten feet from a bedroom in a neighboring building with no notice and no assessment of exposure at the nearest occupied residence across the property line. Compliance evaluations address the host rooftop and ground level, not a bedroom at antenna height next door. HHS should recommend that exposure evaluation for new sites and upgrades consider the nearest occupied sleeping spaces in adjacent structures, that cumulative nighttime residential exposure be studied as its own category, and that residents be notified before installation or upgrade and be able to obtain frequencies, power output, and power density at their own dwelling. Q4(m) and Q16: HHS should prioritize (1) clinical guidance so primary care providers take an exposure history when patients present with unexplained localized burns, new-onset tinnitus, or headaches after nearby antenna installation or upgrade; (2) research on long-term close-range residential exposure to rooftop 4G and 5G infrastructure, including dermal effects, tinnitus, and headache, and why symptoms persist and recur after exposure ends; (3) a standing adverse-event reporting mechanism (Q10(f)). I appreciate HHS asking for the experiences of people who have lived next to this infrastructure and am willing to provide further detail on request.