Technology: Hidden Hazards of the Airwaves

Louis Slesin's stories have a tendency to shock. Like the one about the 23 workers at the Bath Iron Works in Bath, Me., who got "sunburns" one rainy day when someone on a Navy frigate flicked on the ship's radar. Or the trash fires that start spontaneously from time to time near the radio and TV broadcast antennas in downtown Honolulu. Or the pristine suburb of Vernon, N.J., that has both one of the world's highest concentrations of satellite transmitting stations and a persistent -- and unexplained -- cluster of Down's syndrome cases.

For nearly a decade, Slesin, 43, has been...