COAI and Department of Telecom to launch a website that will tell you whether a cell tower is emitting radio waves below the prescribed limit.
Finally, you will be able to know how safe is your area in terms of electromagnetic radiation from cell phone towers.
Come March and the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) in association with the Department of Telecom (DoT) will launch its much awaited website which will tell you if the cell tower in your area is emitting radio waves below the government’s prescribed limit or not.
The website will first be launched in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Rajasthan and Punjab regions and thereafter it will be spanned across the country.
The website was expected to be launched in June last year.
However, according to COAI, the project got delayed owing to the massive data collection on towers across the country that was required.
“Now the data base is ready while beta-testing is going on. This testing is important before you go commercial. By March end we will have it at least in the four regions -- Mumbai, Hyderabad, Rajasthan and Punjab,” Rajan Mathews, director general, COAI told dna.
If a resident figures out that the radiation is above the prescribed limit then he can inform the TERM cell under the DoT which will thereafter send a notice to the concerned telecom player.
Users will have to log on to the website to get the details, which will be provided free of cost.
The plan comes in the wake of a study conducted by a DoT body, which documented cases of cancer deaths in areas overexposed to telecom towers in Mumbai.
As per the government’s guidelines, the EMF emission levels from mobile towers have been based on strict norms and are 1/10th of international norms set by International
Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP). Power density limit has been set to 0.45 watt/ m2 for 900 MHz, 0.9 watt/ m2 for 1800 MHz and 1.0 watt/m2 for 2100 MHz frequency bands.
Any tower emitting radiations beyond this limit will be easily identifiable with this website.
While no study goes to the extend of confirming health hazards of such radiation, many reports suggest radiation from cellphone towers is “possibly carcinogenic to humans”.
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