Is cell phone radiation a health hazard?

NDTV: June 26, 2010



Mumbai has the highest density of cell phone towers in India, many of them erected on towers on top of residential buildings, schools and hospitals.

In the West, as a precautionary measure, towers are built at a height of 30 metres above the building where as in India it's just 2-3 metres.Radiation levels around cell phone towers in many countries are closely monitored by independent bodies but that is not the case in India.

Dr Girish Kumar has been studying the impact of EMR for the last 15 years."Each antenna is transmitting with a gain of approximately 50, so we are looking at 4-5 kilowatts of power being transmitted by these antennas. Microwaves use only 500 watts of power and that too you cook food for just a few minutes. These towers are transmitting 24 hours so you are absorbing radiation 24 hours. The solution is that cell phone towers should transmit one tenth of the power they are currently transmitting," said Dr Girish Kumar, Prof, Electrical Engineering, IIT Mumbai.

A 2008 report, "Health Hazards and Mobile Phones: An Indian perspective", published in the journal Association of Physicians pointed out that mobile phones may be responsible for a wide variety of health hazards.

Mobile phone risks -
• Tissue damage due to exposure to high Radio Frequency levels
• High daily usage could trigger brain tumours
• Fatigue, Nausea and Digestive disturbances
• EMR can affect functioning of pacemakers
*Source - Nov 2008, Journal of Association of Physicians of India

"Radiation of any kind is bad whether X Ray or Ultra Violet, so until we know what the studies show for sure we should not take a chance," said Captain UC Saxena, Retired GM, Air Safety, Air India.

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