DNA- Log on to pull down the tower of deceit near you

DNA- Log on to pull down the tower of deceit near you

Sunday, Apr 28, 2013,

From June 15, a web portal will help figure out if a telecom tower violates DoT's norms.

Has the cellphone tower radiation scare got to you? Come June 15, and you will be able to find out if you stay in an area which is being affected by mobile tower radiation, thanks to a web portal being put together by the cellphone industry and the government.

In a presentation on Friday, the department of telecom (DoT) and the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) decided  to launch a portal from where any person can figure out which is the closest mobile phone tower to his/her house and if it complies with the DoTs safety norms.

The plan comes in the wake of a study conducted by a DoT body, which documented cases of cancer deaths in areas overexposed to telecom towers in Mumbai.

It's a joint effort of the government and the industry. Users will have to log on to the website and they can get all details from it, said Rajan Mathews, director general of COAI.

The best part of the whole process, it's free.

The portal, being developed by a firm called Ramboll, is still in a nascent stage. Many developments, says Mathews, are yet to be finalised.

Earlier this month, dna had reported that a DoT agency, the telecom enforcement resources and monitoring (TERM) cell, in Mumbai has been receiving complaints on suspected high radiation from mobile phone towers.

While going through some of these cases, one case has come to our notice, where in one residential complex, six members of five individual families have been diagnosed with cancer in a span of five to six years, said a report by TERM.

Chetan Shah, 34, a resident of Jawan Nagar society that was mentioned in the report, had said at least eight neighbours had died due to cancer over the last two years.

TERM's survey covered societies in Borivli, Bandra, Wadala, Thane, Andheri, Parel and Dadar, among others. The DoT now plans to conduct more such studies in Mumbai and other parts of the country.

The concern over the effects of radiation from telecom towers has grown in recent times.

http://www.dnaindia.com/india/1827886/report-log-on-to-pull-down-the-tower-of-deceit-near-you