Mobile Towers Radiation and its Myth

All of us are living in a technology driven era, where we can do almost everything by using technology. Today, in this topic, we will talk about Mobile Towers Radiation. Is it too bad for our health or it is just a myth or rumors?

Radiation

First we should know about Radiation, now a days, everybody knows about Radiation, but maximum of them don’t know correct definition of it. Electromagnetic Radiation or Radiation or  Frequency all are same. Radiation is a form of energy that is all around us, such as radio waves, microwaves, X-rays and gamma rays. Sunlight is also a form of Electromagnetic Radiation energy. Radiation is widely use in medical field or health field too. Now a days radiation is everywhere, like Tv, Microwave, and even in Freeze. If all of us are living very happily with these items, then my one question is, “How Mobile Towers Radiation is bad for health?”, and radiation in Tv, Microwave, Freeze and in medical field is good for health. X-Rays, Gamma Rays, External beam radiotherapy and Proton therapy are highly usable radiations in medical field. Doctors use External beam radiotherapy and Proton therapy for cancer. Hope, now you may understand that radiation is not too bad as many people are talking now a days.

Mobile Tower Radiation Bad Or Myth

Mobile phones are widely use in across the globe. It is the one of the best medium for communication. Like other country, In India, it is also the best medium for communication.

In year of 1995 first mobile phone call was launched. First call was made in between that time West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu and Union Telecom Minister Sukhram.

From that time, citizen of India is widely using this. Now you may be thinking, why I’m telling you history of first mobile phone call. I want to justify one thing that after 21 years of first mobile call, there is not any disease or evidence of  disease happen due to mobile tower radiation or mobile. Many people say that mobile tower radiation is bad for pregnant women and children, but no one is justifying his own words. Is population rate is down in India after 1995? Is intelligence in Indian children become less after 1995? My answer is BIG NO.

India is a developing country and creating its own milestones in almost every verticals. We can’t neglect  importance of mobile phones in this development. It is one of the best medium for communication. Apart from traditional calls,  now a days, people are using their phones for video calling, conference calls, Skype calls, making or editing documents for their meetings. Without mobiles and mobile towers, we can’t imagine these kind of works. To make all of these things possible almost every telecommunication companies are doing their best for their subscribers. They are establishing their mobile towers at almost every corner in India to make hassle free service to their subscribers.

Dr. Bhavin Jankaria, Former President at Indian Radiology and Imaging Association, says about Mobile tower Radiation, “Mobile tower radiation is inherently a type of radiation that we believe does not produce any kind of significant harm to humans. We have been using X-ray radiations for more than 115 years, and we still haven’t been able to establish the relationship of cancer and radiation to any great extent. And the mobile tower radiation is inherently a type of radiation that we believe does not produce any kind of significant harm to humans.’’

Mobile tower radiation is also a key subject for World Health Organization (WHO). WHO has referred to more than 24000 articles from across the globe and concluded, “Current evidence does not confirm the existence of any health consequences from exposure to low level electromagnetic field”.

India among nations with most stringent EMF norms

Telecom secy says unfounded apprehensions around electromagnetic field emissions can derail growth story

The department of telecommunications has taken it upon itself to address concerns raised by many activists and groups on the health hazards emanating from electromagnetic field (EMF) emissions from mobile towers.

Telecom Secretary J S Deepak has been organising awareness programmes across the country to educate municipal corporators, doctors and residents’ welfare associations that India has among the most stringent EMF norms in the world.

Addressing members of government and medical fraternity at an event in Mumbai, J S Deepak categorically said consumers cannot access mobile telephony services without mobile towers.

He said: “Telecom towers are critical installations on which the backbone of wireless communication rests and unfounded apprehensions around EMF emissions have the potential to derail our growth story.”

Broadband penetration is directly connected with the rate of growth of any economy. Citing statistics, Deepak said that a 10 percentage points increase in broadband access leads to an increase in per capita GDP by 1.38 per cent. India is still a digital have-not compared to many other countries but in the next few years, India will add over 300-400 million broadband subscribers. Most of these will be mobile broadband users. And if people have to be part of a 24/7 network then mobile towers will have to be allowed in streets, residential buildings and public places.

Read the original article here.

Wireless technologies key to India’s development: Telecom secretary

India needs to embrace and harness wireless communication technologies to become the most developed nation in the coming decades, telecom secretary JS Deepak said on Tuesday.
“Whether India grows at normal pace or it actually leapfrogs to become one of the most developed nation in coming decades, will inter-alia depend on how we embrace and harness wireless communication technologies,” he said at at the inaugural session of a public outreach and awareness programme on electromagnetic field (EMF) emissions and mobile towers organised here under the DoT ‘s aegis.

Stressing telecom towers are critical installations on which the backbone of wireless communication rests, he said that unfounded apprehensions around EMF emissions and mobile towers have the potential to derail the country’s growth story.
Deepak also said that there is no scientific evidence backing the claim that EMF radiation from mobile towers – which are below the safe limits prescribed by the International Commission on Non-ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) and recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO) – can cause adverse health effects.

The DoT has already prescribed strict precautionary norms for exposure limit for the radio frequency field (base station emissions) which is 10 times more stringent than the existing limits prescribed by ICNIRP and recommended by WHO.
“Our EMF norms are much stricter than what is followed by many developed nations, including the US, the UK and most parts of the European Union. Further, the government of India has taken adequate steps to ensure that telecommunications service providers strictly adhere to these prescribed norms,” he added.

Read the original article here.

Telecom tower radiation ‘not hazardous to health’

JS Deepak, Union Secretary of the Department of Telecommunications and Information Technology, has dispelled fears that telecommunication towers are create health hazards for people.

Deepak addressed a public outreach and awareness programme organised under the aegis of the Department of Telecommunications on Electromagnetic Field (EMF) Emissions and Mobile Towers in Dehradun today. He said telecom towers were critical installations that were the backbone of wireless communication in the country. He admitted that unfounded apprehensions that telecom towers radiations were a health hazard could derail the country’s growth story.

“Electromagnetic emission from mobile towers are much below the safety limits prescribed by the International Commission on Non-ionizing Radiation Protection and recommended by the World Health Organization. There is no scientific evidence of telecom towers causing adverse health effects,” Deepak said.

Shivendra Bhatnagar, Senior Deputy Director General, Telecom Enforcement Resource and Monitoring (TERM) unit, explained the strict monitoring and enforcement mechanism put in place by the Department of Telecommunications for EMF related compliance. He said a committee formed at the behest of the Allahabad High Court comprising experts from IITs, AIIMS, Delhi, Indian Council of Medical Research and the Indian Institute of Toxicology Research, Lucknow, had also on the basis of scientific evidences, studies and reports available, found that there was no conclusive evidence about the stated dangers of EMF radiation from mobile towers.

Another speaker Dr TK Joshi from Maulana Azad Medical College, Delhi, said scientific studies had not been able to conclude that EMF emissions from mobile towers could cause health hazards. “Till date there is no evidence to conclude that exposure to low-level electromagnetic fields is harmful to human health,” he added.

Dr Suresh Attili from Grace Cancer Foundation said electromagnetic emission norms were much stricter in India than followed by many developed nations, including the USA, the UK and most parts of the European Union.

Several senior officers from the Central Government, Uttarakhand government, eminent persons and public representatives attended the programme.

Read the original article here.

Department of Telecommunications’ help sought in Naxal areas

Radiation from cellphone towers harmless

Hyderabad: Chief Secretary Rajiv Sharma said the government was approaching the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for improving cell phone services in remote areas of the state, especially extremists’ affected areas. Delivering the inaugural address at an awareness programme on emission of Electromagnetic Field (EMF) from cell towers organised by DoT, the CS said that cell towers were absolutely safe.

DoT deputy director general (CS) Dr. R.M. Chaturvedi said that after holding about 25,000 studies in 30 years, the WHO had arrived at the conclusion that scientific knowledge in this area was now more extensive than for most chemicals. “The WHO involved more than 50 national authorities and eight international organisations in the EMF project since 1996. They have been reviewing scientific information to provide scientifically sound answers to public concerns about the hazards of low-level EMF,” he said.

Mr Chaturvedi said that as per international norms an EMF of 10 watts per square meter was allowed from cell towers. “But, in India, we are using only 1 watt per square meter. We shall hold the testing at cell towers from Thursday to create awareness among the public,” he said. Explaining about the hazards of EMF, he said, “There is no harm from the frequencies released by cell towers. If the atmosphere temperature exceeds 40 degrees Celsius, it will have a little impact and if it increases to 50 degrees Celsius, public feel uncomfortable,” he said.

DoT DDG-TERM Shivendra Bhatnagar said a penalty of Rs 10 lakh per incidence was imposed in case of any cell tower violating EMF norms. “If violation persists, sites and towers can also be closed down,” he said. DoT DDG-TERM G. Gowri Shankar, DoT director M. Chandramoli, KREST foundation chairman Dr. Kakarla Subba Rao, IT expert Dr. T. Hanuman Chowdary, doctors and experts also took part in the programme.

Read the original article here.

Myths and Misconceptions more dangerous than Mobile Tower radiation

If random theories were to be believed, we would all have been dead by now or worse may have damaged the Blood cells, skin disorders, weak eyesight, hearing loss, balded, sexually and mentally incapacitated, given the mobile towers which are placed in close proximity of human in-habitation. Loss of Sparrows and Bees has already been blamed on the tower and site installations only not taking into account other factors including pollution, growing population and associated human infestation into animal habitat.

If latest reports by WHO, The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) and National Green Tribunal (NGT) and Researchers from IIT Madras, IIT Bombay, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Delhi and IISc Bangalore are to be believed then there is no harmful impact of tower radiation on health.

 In-fact one of the reports put together by a 13-member advisory board constituted by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) mentions that the standards set by India are much lower than the universally embraced suggestions of the International Commission on Non Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP), which represent thermal and non-thermal impacts. Which means that radio-frequency radiations from mobile towers are non-ionising electromagnetic radiations and they can’t break chemical bonds or cause ionisation in the human body and linking up mobile tower emissions with the category of high energy radiation which includes frequencies beyond ultraviolet, i.e. X-rays, gamma rays, etc. would be absolutely in-appropriate. Radiation from both mobiles and towers are safe because they are low energy, non-ionising radiation that can induce only thermal effects.
In India, the concern in certain quarters about radiation from mobile towers arises from the highly flawed extrapolation of the fear of ionising radiation to the ultra-weak radio-frequency radiation from mobile towers and phones. This is the basic origin of the great Indian myth concerning mobile tower “radiation”.

While there is no denying that both cell towers and mobile phones emit radiation, but the emission levels are within regulations set by the regulator and the DoT in conjunction with Public health and medical research bodies. Stringent norms for telecom companies in India have been devised with the government stipulating a fine of Rs 10 lakh for violation and a penalty of more than Rs 10 crore for exceeding the prescribed limit for radiation from telecom towers. The mobile handsets too In India, are not allowed to emit radiation more than 1.6 watt/kilo, which is called SAR or specific absorption rate. This safety limit followed by India is far more stringent than norms followed by other developed countries. More so, these statistics when pitted against the standards followed by International Commission on Non-ionising Radiation Protection suggest that India’s safety factor is 10 times stiffer than in 90 per cent countries.

There were concerns raised by WHO in 2014-15, suggesting that The government’s order to reduce the power of mobile towers’ radio frequency, to minimise harmful radiation, could be detrimental to humans. The experts believed that reduction in the power of a base station, the mobile handset transmits more frequency to stay connected to the network. As the handset is closer to the body, it could cause some health hazard. The estimated EMF radiation a mobile handset transmits is 1,000 times higher than that of a base station and the radiation exposure from a base station was about five times lower than from a television or a transistor.

The government which was under a lot of pressure from activists, citizen charters and residents’ organizations and the matter relates to the concern of citizens due to the lack of empirical research and data has come out in open to dismiss the myths attached to the current EMF standards and impact on human health. Last month Ravi Shankar Prasad, Telecom Minister cited WHO findings, mentioning no harmful impact of tower radiation on health.

On the hindsight, experts believe that the stringent norms set by the DoT could be detrimental to the country’s movement towards the next level of technology, such as 5G and have an adverse impact on quality of service and investments especially when The government is banking on mobile devices for the delivery of many citizen centric schemes such as financial inclusion and direct-benefit transfer. Radiation issues, which are not medically founded, could jeopardize these ambitious initiatives.

The original article was written and published by Srikapardhi from Telecom Talk. Read the original article here.

Mobile Tower Radiation Not Harmful: DoT Panel

In a report presented by a 13-member committee constituted by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), it’s concluded that the mobile tower radiation is harmless. India has has adopted ten times more stringent measures than the International Commission on Non Ionising Radiation Protection (ICNIRP), which account for thermal and non-thermal effects, said the report.

“Radio frequency fields are among the most highly researched potential hazards. There are thousands of papers in literature and health agencies have reviewed all of them many times. Virtually all agree — that there are no demonstrated hazards from exposure to RF energy at levels below international (and Indian) limits. More research is needed, but the studies will have to be very well done, very large, and very focused — which will be very expensive. India should give more support to international efforts in this area, particularly the EMF project of the World Health Organisation,” says Dr. Kenneth R Foster at a press conference organised at Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi.

The conference jointly organized by IIT-D and Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC), New Delhi, in association with Health Environment Foundation, New Delhi was inaugurated by Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, Hon’ble Union Minister, Ministry of Communications and IT, Government of India, who released a background paper on EMF emissions from mobile towers.

“So far, no conclusive evidence has been found on adverse health effects of EMF radiation from the mobile handset by the World Health Organisation (WHO)…(and) so long as EMF radiation power levels in the vicinity of base stations of cellphone towers are below the prescribed limits, there should not be any cause of concern for adverse thermal health affects on human beings living close them,” the committee said in its report.

“Although there are plenty of studies conducted across the world on the topic, currently there is no conclusive scientific evidence which establishes that EMF has harmful non-thermal effects,” remarked the committee. “Some countries are taking a precautionary approach by reducing EMF levels below those specified by ICNIRP and India is one of them that has reduced prescribed EMF radiation levels by a factor of 10,” said the report.

The committee presented the report based on an Allahabad High Court order dated January 10, 2012. In the committee report, the panel has proposed few recommendations as well. The proposed recommendations ask the DoT to continue the extensive audit of the self-attested certificates being submitted by telecom service providers to ensure with prescribed stricter norms of EMF radiation from BTS towers. It has given the responsibility to further conduct the research on this topic to The Department of Science and Technology and Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

In order to make the process transparent, the committee suggested creating a national EMF web portal where public can access the status of compliance to prescribed EMF norms. Finally, the committee calls for efforts to spread awareness on EMF and precautions to remove apprehensions regarding the possible health effects of radiation, which it claims to be created by certain sections of the people.

Meanwhile, telecom service providers have backed the report, saying their safety norms are strict and the mobile towers are harmless. “India’s mobile emission safety norms are strict and radiation from telecom towers is not a cause for concern,” Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said in a statement.

“As fears of EMF (electro-magnetic fields) emission from towers in the people are misplaced, we have to collectively allay them (fears),” Association Director-General Rajan S Mathews said in a letter to MLA Ram Lal Sharma, who expressed concerns about the tower radiation. According to Mathews, any unwarranted concern over installing telecom towers would impact the government’s Digital India dream of the Prime Minister.

“Though India’s EMF guidelines are based on the WHO-commissioned ICNIRP’s (International Commission for NonIonising Radiation Protection) norms, which are followed by many countries worldwide, we have reduced its (ICNIRP) limits to one-tenth in 2011, becoming one of the safest countries,” the letter further pointed out.

The original article was written and published by Ria from The Telecom Times. Read the original article here.

The Fighting Debate on Potential Harm Caused by Telecom Towers is a No-Go

With smartphones becoming more and more popular every day, and more people jumping to the bandwagon of owning phones, we have seen an aggressive expansion by telecom players in the world in order to serve usable connectivity options to these phones. This generally has resulted in more telecom players and partnerships in order to set up mobile towers to fight: a) a growing population b) a proportionately patterned growth in the number of phones and smart peripherals that require cellular connectivity.

With more mobile towers coming up, the fear of radiation from these towers have lead to plenty of NOCs being rejected which are required before the towers can be set up. The fear that the radiation emitted by these cell phone towers is potentially harmful has lead to several debates on numerous occasions and at numerous sites. Several times courts have been moved, there have been numerous reports published around the topic and the outcome or conclusion has always been the same, that radiation from these telecom towers is too diminutive to cause any sort of a significant medical damage.

Radiation from any given body is measured in terms of eV or electronvolts. An eV is the energy gained or lost by an electron moving across a potential difference of 1 volt. In fact, if you convert it to joules, one eV comes to be about 1.602176565(35)×10−19 of 1 Joule. Every single body that exists transmits some radiation. Some radiations have a higher frequency, which generally means they have a higher penetrating power and therefore may potentially be harmful. Such radiation is called ionising radiation and is commonly seen in UV Rays, gamma Rays, microwaves, x-rays etc. X-Rays for example, have their frequencies of around 100-1000eV while UV rays are in the region of about 40-50eV. RF waves that originate from these mobile towers, for instance, are about one millionth of 1eV, which is the visible light in itself. This implies that you are more likely to damage cells in your body by exposing yourself to light that staying close to a mobile tower. Numerous researches have been carried out in order to establish the harmful effects if any to mobile tower radiation, but it turns out your smartphones, where radiation is measured in SAR value, is potentially more damaging.

As for the international standards, the FCC has listed 580-1,000 microwatts per square cm as a safe limit. As a convention, India has permitted only one tenth of the maximum safe radiation limit for the cellular towers and a strict penalty is levied if they go beyond. So far, the only case where a defaulter was punished was at Siliguri’s Prakesh Nagar, where increasing the height of the tower solved the problem.

So, if you are worried about radiations from cellular towers, you should definitely read up more on the subject, because the only way to quench thirst is to drink more and more water. But, what eventually you will find out by reading a lot of judgement orders and studies is that there are plenty of other things that are more harmful, including the sunshine itself. So, if you have time, please go ahead but if you are someone for a quick summation, then no, there is nothing to worry here.

The original article was written and published by Riya from OnlyGizmos. Read the original article here.

No health hazards due to radiation from mobile towers: RS Prasad

There is absolutely no truth or scientific reasons that radiations from mobile towers and handsets have an adverse impact on humans or other living creatures, said the government in the Lok Sabha, on Wednesday.

Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad wondered why such a debates arise only in India.

“Yeh vishay kyon Hindustan mein hee uthaye jaate haen (Why are such issues raised in India only?),” Prasad said during Question Hour, adding that globally all countries from the US to Korea use mobile towers abundantly.

“There is no substantial evidence. Even World Health Organisation (WHO) after 20 years of long studies has revealed there are no such threats,” Prasad said answering supplementary questions from BJP member Rama Devi and also from Ranjeet Ranjan (Congress).

Rama Devi wanted to know whether any empirical scientific research has been conducted the world over and in India on the impact of radiation from mobile towers.

“Especially it has been found that birds do not move around the mobile towers or do not undertake hatching,” she said.

Prasad said a scientific study by a team of experts assigned by the Allahabad High Court has found that there is no adverse impact on human health due to mobile towers.

“I also take this opportunity to say that most often we all complain about call drops. If you want that not to happen, please allow mobile towers to come up in your areas,” the minister said, adding, “Let us also be pragmatic. In today’s world, can we do without a mobile phone?”

Earlier, answering another question he told CPI-M member Sankar Prasad Datta that in the last two years the government has installed 24,000 mobile towers across the country and will soon set up over 20,000 more to improve connectivity.

Read the original article here.

Don’t Be Afraid, Mobile Towers Don’t Harm Your Health: TRAI

We all have been afraid of mobile towers close to our homes some time or the other. It was (and probably still is) considered that the radiations originating from these mobile network towers adversely affects human health. And because of this some residential societies even force shut down the mobile network towers operating in their premises.

However, this is not true…

TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) claims that EMF (Electro Magnetic Field) radiations from mobile network towers doesn’t have adverse health effects either on adults or children.

Multiple judgment from various high courts across the country also reinforce the fact that mobile towers don’t have any bad effect on our health. There is no scientific evidence that proves how these radiations affect human health badly.

“A number of judgments delivered by the High Courts in Gujarat, Kerala, Allahabad, Delhi and Himachal Pradesh have ruled that there is no conclusive evidence to prove that EMF radiation emitted from mobile towers has adverse effects on health. Thus, they cannot potentially harm humans,” said Agneshwar Sen, TRAI Advisor (B&CS).

India Has Very Stringent Radiations Guidelines

India has one of the most stringent EMF radiation guidelines in the world. It is currently kept at 1/10^th of the global emission norms recommended by International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP), recognized by WHO.

“TRAI and DoT have implemented stringent emission norms that ensure no adverse effects on human health from mobile tower emissions,” mentioned TRAI Principal Advisor Suresh Kumar Gupta.

The Department of Telecom (DoT) also charges a heft penalty to any operator violating these guidelines on even a single mobile tower.

“The EMF penalty norm that has been set by the Department of Telecom (DoT) as on November 2013 levies a penalty ofRs. 10 lakh per tower site per telecom service provider if they fail to comply with the set standards,” Gupta added.

To ensure that all telecom providers are adhering to the guidelines, the Telecom Enforcement Resource Monitoring (TERM) cell checks the EMF radiations emitted by 10% of the base stations and roof top towers of all telecom providers in the country. Only one EMF radiation violation was found in West Bengal and that was rectified by increasing the height of the mobile tower.

To ensure good network coverage along with following low emission norms TRAI has recommended M&As and spectrum sharing among the telecom companies. This will help in meeting the ever increasing demand of telecom services and high-speed data services of almost 1 billion mobile phone users in the country.

TRAI Advisor also said that the inadequate number of functional mobile network towers was one of the main reason for poor quality of service of many telcos. This can easily be overcome by increasing the number of base stations in the country.

The article was published by Anand Karwa from trak.in. Read the original article here – http://trak.in/tags/business/2016/01/22/mobile-towers-health-harm-trai/