An expert panel consisting of telecom officers and doctors presented the scientific facts clarifying various myths on perceived health hazards from mobile tower radiation
Under, a nationwide public outreach campaign to dispel myths about EMF radiation from mobile towers, an awareness programme was recently organised by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Ministry of Communications on Electromagnetic Field (EMF) Emissions and Mobile Towers in Noida.
Displaying TARANG SANCHAR, a web portal for information sharing on EMF and compliances which was launched by DoT for public, VKRoy, Director(C), Delhi LSA gave a real time view of features of the web portal and its utilities for knowing the compliance status of towers in any locality and way to raise request for measurement of EMF emission at any place.
“Scientific evidences available in the public domain do not support any harmful EMF radiation from mobile towers. In fact, the radiations norms in India are well below the safe limits prescribed by the International Commission on Non-ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) and recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO),” Roy said.
Stressing upon the need of installation of required number of towers in various localities for best wireless connectivity and Quality of Service (QoS), Roy sought for a greater public support.
Referring to the EMF Project established by World Health Orgnisation (WHO), in which over 50 national authorities and eight international organisations are involved, Dr T K Joshi, Advisor to Ministry of Health, Government of India, said,” Despite extensive research, to date there is no evidence to conclude that exposure to low-level electromagnetic fields is harmful to human health. DoT has already prescribed strict precautionary norms for exposure limit for the Radio Frequency Field (Base Station Emissions) which is ten times more stringent than the existing limits prescribed by ICNIRP and recommended by WHO.”
“India follows much stricter norms than any other developed county. Moreover, the Government of India has frequently monitored the whole process to ensure that Telecommunications Service Providers strictly adhere to these prescribed norms,” Joshi added.
Elaborating on the role of Telecom Enforcement, Resource and Monitoring (TERM) cell and mechanism to ensure EMF Compliance in Delhi NCR Area, N K Chhoker,DDG(C),Delhi LSA, said, “DoT has provided a strict monitoring and enforcement mechanism for EMF-related compliances. Any BTS site found violating the EMF norms would be penalised by 10 lakh per BTS per incidence and in case of persistent violation, closing of BTS site will be recommended by TERM cell.”
The awareness programme emphasised that towers in the Noida are safe and TERM Cell is fully committed and geared to ensure compliance of guidelines designed for safeguarding citizens.