MOBILE TOWER RADIATION HAZARDS - FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

1. What are the Health Hazards faced with Mobile Towers Radiations?

Sleep Disturbance, Headaches, Memory Loss, Lack of Concentration, Fatigue, Joint Pains, Vision Distortion, Miscarriage, Heart Problems, Brain Tumour, Leukaemia, Cancer, etc.

Also, it affects birds, animals, fruit yield of the trees, and environment.

2. Do we have any Medical Reports to prove these?

Overuse of cell phones leads to hearing loss and ear tumour, and this has been reported by several doctors in India. On May 31, 2011, WHO reported, “The electromagnetic fields produced by mobile phones are classified by the International Agency for Research on Cancer as possibly carcinogenic to humans.”

There are several epidemiological studies done in various countries, such as, Germany, Austria, Brazil, Israel, etc. where they have reported increase in cancer cases in 5 to 10 years, where radiation level was more than 1 mW/m2. Cancer is the last stage and before that people living close to mobile phone towers have reported sleep disturbance, headaches, memory loss, lack of concentration, fatigue, joint pains, vision distortion, miscarriage, heart problems, etc. There are cluster of cancer cases in India also, which occurred after a few years of installation of mobile towers, and where radiation levels were around 10 mW/m2.

One of the links with peer reviewed publications on EMF effect on human and environment with epidemiological and experimental studies. http://www.cellphonetaskforce.org/

Link to a new statement from the American Academy of Environmental Medicine:
http://www.facebook.com/l/LAQEeBjKhAQFX9ofuyhZi2_RzaXSLVuozVog6HsiiXM_6ng/aaemonline.org/emf_rf_position.html

3. What are the Indian Standards of EMF radiation levels permitted?

India follows ICNIRP Guidelines of safe radiation density of 4500 milliwatt/m2 for GSM900 and 9200 milliwatt/m2 for GSM1800. However, ICNIRP guidelines clearly state that these are for short term exposure, averaged over 6 minutes and not for long term exposure. Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) Report recommended adopting 1/10th of ICNIRP guidelines in Jan. 2011.

4. What is the highest reading of EMF radiation level recorded so far?

Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has reported highest measured reading of power density as 450 mW/m2 and most of their readings are within 1 to 100 mW / m2. That’s why they always claim that they are within the safe limits. However, from health point of view, safe limit for 24 hours exposure should be less than 0.1 mW / m2.

5. What are the EMF radiation level standards prevailing in other countries.

Safe Limits adopted in various countries for GSM900 are given below:


6. How far is far from Mobile Towers / Base Station so that there is no health hazard faced by humans?

Radiation level at a place depends upon power transmitted, radiation pattern of the antenna, and distance from the transmitting towers. From health point of view, for 24 hours exposure and assuming human life span of 70 years, safe radiation density is less than 0.1 mW/m2, which includes apartments, schools, hospitals, offices and playgrounds. Safe radiation density can be 10mW/m2, where people spend few minutes a day. Currently in India, base stations transmit 20W/carrier, so in the main beam, a distance of less than 300m is not safe. If the power transmitted is reduced by 100 times, then safe distance will reduce by 10 times.

7. Why should mobile phone towers not be close to Hospitals, Schools and Residences where pregnant ladies and Senior Residents reside? At what distance they should be?

Children and pregnant ladies are more sensitive to radiation, and hence they should not be exposed to high radiation for longer time. Senior residents and patients have week immune system and hence they are more susceptible to high radiation. Please see Point 6 for more details.

8. Are there any International standards for :

Height at which the Towers should be installed – 30 m

Distance at which the Towers should be installed from Residences, Hospitals, Schools – 50 m

Power Transmission by the Towers – 1 to 2W in the dense urban area

9. The Cell Phone Service providers are very strong financially and have strong political contacts. They conduct Seminars in 5 Star Hotels, invite foreign delegates, and distribute printed leaflets manipulated at times. The Civil Society does not have all this. How to put our point forward? We need technical studies literature to support.

There are plenty of technical literatures reporting health hazards to human, birds, animals, plants, trees, etc. We need to raise funds, which can be utilized for creating awareness and fund epidemiological studies.

10. Unless we are able to create public awareness, nothing is going to happen as telcos lobby is very strong. How do we go about it to create mass awareness through TV and media? How do we engage NGOs and Political parties especially opposition parties to raise relevant questions in the Parliament and also create public awareness.

We have to create public awareness through digital media, i.e., facebook, twitter, blog, email, SMS, etc. We can also request cricketers and bollywood people to join the campaign, as reporters like to cover them. Also, involve school and college children; let us not underestimate youth of our country.

11. Can we get copies of rules and regulations for the radiation norms in the countries like Switzerland, Russia, Australia and Italy which countries seem to have adopted norms which are safe enough for all living beings?

We can get copies of rules and regulations of the radiation norms adopted in the other countries through internet.