AHMEDABAD
A public hearing on health hazards of living near mobile towers by the Ahmedabad Chapter of Indians For Safe Environments (IFSE) highlighted the alleged ill-effects that the tower can have on one’s health.
However, representatives from the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said that the towers are erected as per strict norms laid out by the DoT and in accordance with health standards prescribed by the World Health Organisation.
Speaking at the function, Prakash Munshi, of Indians for Safe Environment, said that despite the health hazards of cell-phone towers, only few cities in India had rules regarding erecting such towers in residential areas, schools and colleges.
In his presentation, Munshi claimed that people living within 50 to 300 metre
radius of such towers were in the high radiation zone and were more prone to the ill effect of electromagnetic radiation. As for the emission levels fixed by the DoT for the mobile towers, he said that they were based on WHO recommendations that did not take into consideration ground realities in India.
He also talked of a DoT advertisement that warned readers not to use mobiles and install landline phones if possible. “If mobiles are so safe why give out such advertisements,” said Munshi. He argued that the case was similar to tobacco where tobacco warning were changed from ‘is injurious to health’ some years ago to ‘it kills’ now. “Initially we were saying there was no ill effect of radiation from cell phone towers now the WHO is saying it is possibly carcinogenic,” said
Munshi.
Ramakrishnan P, COAI principal advisor, in his presentation said that radiation is essentially divided into two groups ionizing and non-ionising. “X-rays, gama rays fall in the ionizing group while cellular operators operate in a frequency that is in the non-ionising group. Non-ionising radiation means there is not enough energy to bombard matter resulting in its disintegration. This means that the cell phone towers will in no way affect one’s dna or result in changes in it,” said Ramakrishnan.
VK Cherian, COAI senior director, said that emission levels fixed for telecom operators in India were less than what is prevalent in 95% of the countries in the world. “Only 5% of the countries have an emission level that is still lower than what we have. Moreover, the DoT has issued new guidelines regarding mobile towers and they always keep an eye on telecom operators. Do you think they would have issued the guidelines without consulting the medical community about the issue of emission and radiation?” said Cherian.
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