Dear Saligao-netters, Please find given below an article in todays Navhind Times on, 'Mobile Tower Radiations' by Mr. Shantaram Naik, which makes for interesting reading.
Regards, Desmond da Costa. Mobile tower radiations: no adverse health effects have been established Goa is a peculiar state where there is a lot of resistance from local bodies. In fact, the question pertains to towers not being allowed and being given NoCs by panchayats in Goa. I have 17 cases of BSNL alone in different parts of Goa where local bodies have opposed this. I think the issue is that there is a public perception problem with regard to radiation” Milind Deora, Union Minister of State for Communications Wrong public perception BY SHANTARAM NAIK Do mobile towers pose a health hazard? This has been a live issue in Goa for quite some time. In rest of the country, it has not yet become an issue of magnitude but in bigger cities, it has certainly become a sensitive issue. In the recently concluded session of Rajya Sabha, I had a star question on the subject and, the Union Minister of State for Communications, Mr Milind Deora who had come well prepared, gave a detailed reply. Members like Mr S S Ahluwalia, Mr Chandan Mitra, both of BJP, also asked their pointed suplementaries. I said that today mobile has become our doctor, our computer, our bank, our post office, our railway office and our airport. I therefore sought to know from the minister whether there is any truth in the reports that radiation from towers lead to cancer, that they affect birds and animals, are harmful to the pregnant women and children, and further, I wanted to know whether even the DNA of the human being is affected due to radiations from the towers. In his reply Mr Deora said: “The thing is that in India today, with 75 per cent of tele-density figures, 72 per cent of that is wireless which is mobile telephony and, about 3 per cent of that is wire line. So, the country has chosen wireless technology as the preferred choice of communication.” “But, in terms of radiation, I would like to inform the House and the members in particular that the WHO itself has, as recently as 2006-2010, conducted many studies. In 2010 the WHO has stated that a large number of studies have been conducted over the last two decades to assess whether mobile phone radiation from towers pose a potential risk. To date, no adverse health effects have been established. One global independent body which is an independent body, called ICNIRP (International Convention for Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection) that sets the standards for how much radiation is permissible, what is the permissible limits from BTSs. I would like to inform the House about a chronology of events that have taken place in India. As recently as 2008, the government was not adhering to any guidelines relating to the radiation from BTSs. In 2008, when we saw this wireless boom in the country, the Indian government, the DoT has adopted ICNIRP standards for BTSs mobile towers.” “In 2010 an enforcement cell was set up which goes out and monitors the radiation coming from the towers to build capacity and to go out and enforce these. It is only recently that we formed an Inter-Ministerial Committee which had members from the DoT, Health Ministry, ICMR, Environment and Forests, Bio-technology, Telecom Engineering Centre and Wireless and Planning Centre to look at this and at holistic level. Then the Committee suggested to the government that we move away from ICNIRP; and increase or reduce the limits by one tenth. So, today ICNIRP is effectively adopted by 70 per cent of the world in terms of permissible limits for radiation from towers,” he said, adding “We moved to a regime which is 10 times more stringent than ICNIRP and that is followed by about 10-20 per cent of the world. The government has taken many steps to prevent any effect from radiation from mobile towers and also to build a capacity. Our Ministry’s goal is to increase the tele-density. But in the absence of conclusive research, we prefer to observe caution.” In view of the Minister’s elaborate information I wanted to know what the minister is going to do to create awareness amongst the people and whether he was willing to come down to Goa to explain his side to the people. And here is what he said: “As recently as October last year, I was in Goa. Goa is a peculiar state where there is a lot of resistance from local bodies. In fact, the question pertains to towers not being allowed and being given NoCs by panchayats in Goa. I have 17 cases of BSNL alone in different parts of Goa where local bodies have opposed this. I think the issue is that there is a public perception problem with regard to radiation. I would like to make it clear to the entire House and to the country that setting standards for radiation limits from towers and enforcing that is only the domain of DoT and the TERM Cell. There is no reason for state governments or municipalities or panchayats to take this into their own hands. In terms of radiation we are following the best practices around the world. We have the best capacity to enforce that. Where we would like the state governments, the municipalities and the panchayats to get involved is, perhaps, when they look at the structural safety of the buildings or when they look at setback areas. So, to spread awareness we, in DoT, are calling a meeting some time soon, where we will have the state governments represented, to try and give them some uniformity in terms of guidelines.” Responding to Dr Chandan Mitra, a senior journalist and MP’s claim that in the state of Jharkhand hundreds and thousands of crows have fallen from these towers and died, Mr Deora told the House, “I can say that, as of now, internationally also there is no conclusive research to suggest that any species is being harmed by this. But all that we can do is, we can adhere to the best of standards. We have even moved away for ICNIRP, which is the global norm, to a more stringent standard. But we are monitoring this very closely. “I can say that personally I am very passionate about this because I come from Mumbai. In Mumbai also there is a public opinion like it is there in Goa about the ill-effects of mobile towers on humans, on other species. We are monitoring this very closely and as and when there is any research that moves towards some kind of conclusion we will adopt that and move to those standards.” (The writer is a Rajya Sabha MP) -- Saligao-Net is at http://groups.google.com/group/saligao-net To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe email [email protected]
