Friday, January 13, 2012

Form panel to assess mobile towers' impact: HC

Times of India - 11 Jan 2011

LUCKNOW: The Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court on Tuesday directed for constitution of a seven-member panel to assess the impact of mobile towers installed in residential areas and present its report in the court on April 16.

A division bench of Justice DP Singh and Justice SC Chaurasia passed the above order on the writ petition filed by Ram Singh Jauhari. The petitioner had stated that the radiation emitted from the mobile towers is dangerous to the health of the common people. Scientific reports have confirmed the fact. In this view, he sought ban on installing mobile towers in the residential areas.

While constituting the panel, the bench said that four IIT specialists from Kanpur, Delhi, Kharagpur and Mumbai would comprise the panel. There would be three other specialists from other fields.

2 comments:

  1. Hi! Nice work.I initially read about the ill effects via
    http://harpers.org/archive/2010/05/0082932
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_radiation_and_health
    http://www.bioinitiative.org/report/docs/report.pdf

    I have recently moved to Bangalore and have found quite a few cellphone towers on 2 storied buildings near my home- couple of towers near a hospital, one tower on a temple building!.I want to ask for removal of those structures.

    I am looking for following info can you please help/ direct me to some one who can help ?

    Can you point me to the guidelines for mobile tower installations in India ?
    Whom to report in case of noncompliance ?
    What's a high density residential area ?
    Any forum where I can ask these questions ?
    Any ppl with whom I can connect who have successfully fought these kinds of cases.

    Sorry I am asking too much.But internet did not throw any links in this regards.

    Thanks in anticipation.

    Regards,
    -Shailesh Charati,Bangalore

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    Replies
    1. Dear Mr. Shailesh,

      Please find the answers to your questions below:

      # India has adopted ICNIRP (International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection) guidelines of 1998 which state safe radiation:
      For GSM 1800 = 9.2W/m2 and
      For GSM 900= 4.5W/m2

      However these guidelines are outdated as they take into account only thermal effects and not non-thermal effects of radiation such as effect on cells/DNA and genetic damage.

      # It is not that every place will be equally affected. People living in the main beam of the antenna are more susceptible. When it comes to safe distance, one cannot define the same as the transmission varies depending on the amplifiers used and the power transmission from the antenna.

      # Unfortunately, right now in India there is no e-mail id or authority where one can directly complain. However, one can try writing to TUG/DOT/TRAI.

      With regards,
      Neha Kumar

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