Mobile Tower radiation and Harmful effects

Live India- TV Channel coverage -9 August 2010



Mr. Sachin Pilot - Minister of State for Communications and IT says it is high time we address the issue of radiation, as strong objections have been raised by experts and civil society over the uncontrolled spread of mobile towers that could have serious impact on the health of people.

Prof Girish Kumar from Electrical Engg Dept, IIT Bombay mentions residents face health problems like headache, loss of memory, concentration problems in the beginning and prolong exposure can lead to even cancer. Experts say a continuous 20-minute contact between the human ear and mobile phone increases temperature of blood flowing through a user's brain, which could be dangerous, while high levels of radiation from towers can affect lives of people living around it.

One particular case Prof. Kumar highlights is of a lady who is currently diagonized with cancer and has a cell tower adjacent to her house a few 10 meters away. On measuring the radiation level the readings were found to be very high of the order -6 to -8dBm. Similarly, raditiation levels in some places at Gurgaon, Delhi showed radiation values as high as 0 dBm.

Prof Kumar puts forward his calculations on the amount of power an average human adult will be exposed to with the current radiation norm. On cumulating the power values are comparable to putting an individual in a microwave oven for 20 minutes per day.

India has currently adopted ICMR norm of 9W/kg where as Russia and European countries have adopted radiation norm values 450 - 9000 times lesser. While European nations have just three to five operators, in India the number of operators now stands at 15.

India has around 4.5-lakh towers today and many more are being added to meet the demand of almost 65-crore mobile subscribers, which is growing at 1.5-crore every month, the highest in the world.

Read :Stricter guidelines soon for mobile radiation- http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article559504.ece