Even as there is public anxiety that radiation from antennae of mobile towers is carcinogenic, MiD DAY found that there are no guidelines in place
Even as there is public anxiety that radiation from antennae of mobile towers is carcinogenic, MiD DAY found that there are no guidelines in placeWhile the BBMP budget proposed to garner revenue from telecom towers dotting the skylines of the city, authorities are clueless about health safety measures against the radiation they emit.
"We have heard about it, but nothing is clear. We need expert guidance in this regard," said Mayor SK Nataraj.
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"We are committed to protect public health and we will soon call a meeting of experts to discuss the issue."
The BBMP is contemplating levying a charge of Rs 10,000 per tower.The BBMP is contemplating levying a charge of Rs 10,000 per tower, while a proposal was made in the budget presented on Monday.
There are around 4,000 towers in the city and the levy is expected to fetch revenue to the tune of Rs 4 crore.
While there has been public anxiety about the spread of telecom towers in residential areas due to fears that radiation from the antennae is carcinogenic, MiD DAY found that there are no guidelines in place.
This is despite International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) setting standards limiting the frequency of the radiation.
Bhargavi, member of an environment protection group said, "The allowed frequency of the Electro-Magnetic radiation from a tower is 9 terahertz, while a study showed some of them emitting less than 4 terahertz, which is hazardous.
On the other hand, Nataraj said that the BBMP was looking at restricting the number of towers in the city, while he foresaw a greater challenge when service providers start 3G services.
Last week, the union government had said that service providers would be fined Rs 5 lakh per mobile phone tower that did not adhere to internationally accepted limits of radiation.
It has asked service providers to have all the base transreceiver stations (BTS) self-certified.
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The self-certification details have to be submitted to the respective Telecom Enforcement Resource and Monitoring (TERM) cells of the department of telecommunications (DoT) by November 15.
But instead, telecom lobbies are pressing hard to establish that there is no linkage between the disease and radiation levels.
"The policies and guidelines (for telecom tower business) are ad-hoc and arbitrary in nature and have conditions which are not easy or are not possible to comply with and act as a roadblock towards creation of a national telecom infrastructure," said a COAI (Cellular Operators Association of India) official.
