Toronto’s cell tower radiation guidelines to stay

Toronto’s cell tower radiation guidelines to stay

Nestor E. Arellano

@nestorarellano 
Published: November 12th, 2013

GOVERNMENT NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Health guidelines concerning the allowable level of radio frequency (RF) radiation emitted by cellular towers in Toronto will remain in place despite a recommendation from the city’s medical health officer to drop the existing safety policy.

The recommendation by Dr. McKeown, medical officer of health for Toronto to cancel the city’s Prudent Avoidance policy regarding wireless RF emissions from cell towers in the municipality, failed to garner the needed majority votes when the Toronto Board of Health voted on the matter last week, according to the Canadians 4 Safe Technology (C4ST), a not-for-profit volunteer organization focus on bringing awareness about the dangers of radiation from technology.

City Council adopted Prudent Avoidance (PA) in 2008. Under the PA policy providers installing new cellular towers in the city are requested to keep wireless RF emissions 100 times below Safety Code 6. Safety Code 6 is a the exposure guideline used puts in place by health Canada since the 1980s that governs emissions from cell phones, cell towers, Wi-Fi, smart meters and other consumer goods including baby monitors.

Compliance with PA is voluntary.

“It took conviction for the board members to keep this visionary policy in place,” Frank Clegg, CEO of C4ST, said in a statement today. “When the largest city in Canada thinks that Health Canada is not doing enough to protect Canadians, that is significant.”

Read more: http://www.itworldcanada.com/article/torontos-cell-tower-radiation-guideline-to-stay/86625#ixzz2lKqcDIaC]

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