They feel that the government needs to adopt more stringent factors for tower radiations and identify it as a problem.
The department of telecom is soon planning to make more stringent measures for mobile tower installation over buildings and towers in the city, a top retired official of the telecom department said.
Radiation from mobile phones and towers has
become a significant risk to public health in urban hubs and cities and the government is trying to work out solutions to solve the problem.
“We have proposed 1/10th of the existing radiation emissions from mobile phone towers over buildings and the proposals will soon be in force. Six metres within the direct range of any mobile tower is a danger zone, but such problems cannot be avoided in a city.
The standards that we had accepted so far were applicable to the United States and now are drawing up our own which will suit Indian conditions and need,” former advisor (operations and technology), department of telecommunications, told DNA.
A vibrant seminar involving top government officials from the telecom sector, medical professionals dealing with hazards of mobile tower and phone radiation, IIT professors who have researched the subject and victims led to a conclusion that the government needs to adopt more stringent factors for tower radiations and identify the problem.
“Mobile phones have become the 21st century version of cigarettes. When medical professionals were warning cigarette manufacturers about the dangers of smoking in the early days, nobody listened.
“It was only when cases peaked that it was proved. In the case of mobile phones, one can’t see the smoke, can’t smell it nor see the damage, but it is causing a huge amount of risk to public health,” said IIT professor Girsh Kumar, who has conducted research on the subject.
“Mobile companies need to accept the problem and only then a solution can be found. It was only when the auto industry accepted that vehicles lead to pollution that solutions were found. The key is to accept the problem and identify solutions,” he added.
Dr RS Sharma of the Indian Council of Medical Research said that the government of India was among the countries that had adopted the worst standards of radiation levels.
Ram Kumar, a top retired official from the telecom ministry, said the government was serious about the health hazards of the problem.
“We found that radiation emissions were higher than the norms and that the government had chalked out solutions to solve the problem. The solution lies in using optic fibre cables and use radiation towers of lower power,” he added.
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