Though there is no conclusive proof of health risk from mobile towers, people living near them are in constant fear.
Four residents of an Altamont Road building in Mumbai have been detected with cancer. They blame it on the telecom towers set-up on the top of the building facing theirs. The two buildings have been having serious problems because of these towers. The residents association of the locality held a meeting to convince the building owners to remove the towers in view of health hazards.
“Earning that extra money is the reason for building owners agreeing to install telecom towers. But they are putting so many people living in surrounding areas at risk. I receive so many complaints and letters from people who are suffering from radiation-related diseases. They are living in fear and do not know who to reach out to,” says Prakash Munshi, a senior citizen, who has taken up the cause under his informally formed group called Citizens Against Health Hazards from Mobile Towers.
Munshi along with Actor Juhi Chawla has been successful in removing 13 towers in three months of campaigning. But that’s just a drop in the ocean. There are over 3.5 lakh towers in the country atop buildings, roof tops and even hanging out from residential balconies.
“Studies carried out by experts show high radiation levels in our buildings. I suffer from frequent headaches,” Shiv Kumar Jaiswal, a cable operator residing in a congested north Kolkata locality says. There are two towers operating located atop his building. The Seths who reside on the building’s top floor is amongst the worst impacted. Their kids suffer from frequent health hazards that include headaches and sleeplessness. Attempts to set up a new tower in a nearby building were stalled by the residents recently.
Moving into the southern parts of the city, around eight kilometres from where the Seths stay, over 60-year-old Kisalaya Mitra, is fighting pitched battles against illegal setting up of towers. There are two towers located around his two-storeyed home.
“My house has been impacted because of radiation. I suffer from cataract while my wife has joint pain. In our locality a patient having a pace-maker passed away recently after suffering from the prolonged impacts of radiation,” Mitra added.
A few kilometres away, residents of another high-rise in the posh Mandeville Gardens area of south Kolkata are fighting a pitched battle for removal of mobile towers from their apartment rooftop.
According to the residents, who preferred anonymity, at least 18 families living in the two top-stories of the apartment have been impacted. There are two cancer patients while another septuagenarian is suffering from “debility”.
“The tower came up nearly 16 years ago. Initially, we received a lumpsum amount as rent. But over the last two to three years, we are witnessing an increasing number of health issues amongst the residents,” one of the resident of the building said.
Mobile operators, however, say that there is no cause for worry. According to the Cellular Operators Association of India the radiations emitted by mobile communication systems lie in the non-ionizing part of the electromagnetic spectrum and thus do not have enough energy to cause any genetic damage.
“The emissions from mobile phones and base stations are some 50,000 times lower than the levels at which the first health effects begin to be established.
Also, the output power of mobile phones is less than 1 Watt, which is far lower than the emission levels that emanate from the microwave or even the radio,” says Rajan Mathews, Director General, COAI.
Health experts differ on the issue. While there are a number of studies which establishes health risk due to radiation from mobile towers and phones, there are equal number of reports that says the opposite.
“There are select studies to indicate that tower radiations have carcinogenic (cancer) effects on humans. While a case to case study has perhaps not been done, one cannot deny radiation having adverse health impacts,” Dr Joydeb Biswas, director, Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute in Kolkata.
In Kolkata, complaints have been pouring in to the State Pollution Control Board. There are a few thousand towers in Kolkata and the authorities have no idea as to how many of them are legal.
“Cancer cases are on the rise but attributing them just to mobile towers would be wrong. But yes these are warning signs which we should not ignore,” Dr Biswas adds.
Meanwhile the Department of Telecom has revised the Electro Magnetic Field Radiation norm of permissible upper limit of radiation from mobile towers antennae from 4,500 milliwatts per square meter to 450 milliwatts per sq metre, from September 1, 2012. But experts say that this may not be enough.
“There are two issues of radiation – from towers and from handsets. There need to be more laws to address these issues. There is a tendency of people to allow the setting up of towers so that it can waive off the maintenance costs of the building. Unless there is awareness, there cannot be a solution,” said Kaustav Ghosh, Advisor, Consulting at PwC, India.
While activist groups want to pull out telecom towers, operators are expressing their concern about the poor quality of network/coverage. To comply with radiation norms, telecom operators would have to set up more towers with reduced radiation levels.
“Where will the money come from? The Government should provide some kind of subsidies to help resolve the conflict arising from the same. There needs to be an India-specific solution,” said Ghosh.
In foreign countries, the rules are much more stringent – the towers are located on tall sky scrapers which are outside of people’s line of vision and therefore safer, say analysts.
“As far as radiation from handsets are concerned – there have been laws to bring down the radiation from these handsets as well. However, this cannot be monitored. There is more harm from radiation from cell phones than from towers as we use cell phones at all times. There can be two solutions – either more towers or other solutions like amplifier repeaters. These need to be worked out,” said Ghosh.
What is Electromagnetic Radiation?
Electromagnetic Fields (EMF) occur in nature and thus have always been present on Earth. Besides natural sources the electromagnetic spectrum also includes fields generated by human-made sources: X-rays are employed to diagnose a broken limb after a sport accident. The electricity that comes out of every power socket has associated low frequency electromagnetic fields. And various kinds of higher frequency radiowaves are used to transmit information – whether via TV antennas, radio stations or mobile phone base stations.
Precautionary guidelines for mobile users
● Keep distance – Hold the cell phone away from yourself.
●Use a headset (wired or Bluetooth) to keep the handset away from your head.
● Do not press the phone handset against your head. Radio Frequency (RF) energy is inversely proportional to the square of the distance from the source -- being very close increases energy absorption much more.
● Limit the length of mobile calls.
● Use text as compared to voice wherever possible.
● Put the cell phone on speaker mode.
● If the radio signal is weak, a mobile phone will increase its transmission power. Find a strong signal and avoid movement. Use your phone where reception is good.
● Metal & water are good conductors of radio waves so avoid using a mobile phone while wearing metal-framed glasses or having wet hair.
● Let the call connect before putting the handset on your ear or start speaking and listening – A mobile phone first makes the communication at higher power and then reduces power to an adequate level. More power is radiated during call connecting time.
● If you have a choice, use a landline, not a mobile phone.
●When your phone is on , don't carry it in chest/breast or pants pocket. It automatically transmits at high power every one or two minutes to check the network.