Even With Cellphone Use
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Transcript of Even With Cellphone Use
8/12/2019 Even With Cellphone Use
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“Even with cellphone use, benign swelling in the brain and head, hearing disorders,headaches and anxiety neurosis are well established,” said Dr Sameer Kaul, cancer
surgeon, I ndraprastha Apoll o Hospital , New Delhi .
The impact is higher in children, who have smaller and thinner skulls.
The industry, predictably, is in denial. "We have extensive factual, scientific research and
papers to show that there is no conclusive evidence that EMF, at the levels prescribed by the
International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (an international
commission for radiation protection) causes any risk to the health and well -being of
individuals," said Rajan S. Mathews, director general, Cellular Operators Association of
India, an apex body of telecom operators.
People who have developed health problems are not buying that. "If towers are so safe, why
bother to have laws and limits at all," said AK Anand, who is unsuccessfully trying to get
cellphone towers moved from his Vikas Puri H block neighbourhood for five years.
Towering trouble
Are the radio-frequency waves emitted from cellphone towers killing us slowly? Being
exposed to a mobile tower located within 50-metres is like being in a microwave oven for 24
hours, say experts, and carries the same cancer risk as living surrounded by lead, DDT,
chloroform and petrol exhaust .
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The Kasliwals and fifty other families in the upscale C-scheme neighbourhood in Jaipur live
under the shadow of death. Seven people in the neighbourhood have been diagnosed with
cancer since cellphone towers were installed here in 2003. Since then, illnesses, both minor
and major, have become a part of their lives.
Two of the three Kasliwal brothers were recently diagnosed with cancer. "First, our dog died
of cancer. Last year, both my younger brother and I were diagnosed with brain cancer. It was
only when the doctor asked whether we were exposed to some kind of radiation that it
occurred to us that the cell-phone towers next to our home were to blame," said Sanjay
Kasliwal, who is a part of a large joint-family living in C-scheme.
After treatment at the New York Presbyterian Hospital in the US, Pramod Kasliwal has been
admitted to Medanta Medicity at Gurgaon. He is critical. "These towers were put up illegally
and the Jaipur Municipal Corporation (JMC) has no records for granting any permission for
installation of cell phone towers," says Kasliwal.
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Killer waves
The World Health Organisation's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) says
radiation from cellphone handsets and towers is "possibly carcinogenic to humans" and may
cause glioma, a type of brain cancer. Towers are more dangerous than handsets because they
emit greater-intensity radiation 24X7.
"The area of concern is base-stations and their antennas, which provide the link to and from
cellphones. This is because, in contrast to handsets, it (RF) is emitted continuously and is
more powerful at close quarters...," said an inter-ministerial committee of experts on
electromagnetic radiation exposure from cellphone towers in 2009.
Despite that, the response from government is predictable. "There is no scientific study to
prove that anyone has got any health problem due to telecom towers in India. The WHO has
prescribed norms on emission of radiation by Telecom Towers. Our norms are much below
the WHO norms," said R Chandrasekhar, secretary, department of telecommunications
(DoT). "The government has set up a committee under the department of science and
technology to look into the issues. The matter is continuously under review."
But the norms adopted in India in 2009 are already outdated, say experts. "In 2009, India
adopted the radiation norms specified by ICNIRP, which are now outdated as they were only
intended to protect people against short-term gross heating effects and not against
‘biological’ effects such as cancers and genetic damage from long-term exposure," says Dr
Girish Kumar, professor, department of electrical engineering, IIT Bombay, who submitted a
report on Cell Tower Radiation to the secretary, DoT, in December 2010.
"Also, these safety standards are based on 6 minutes/day exposure, without accounting for
people who live close to cell towers 24x7. The norms allow EMF of 4,500 mw/sq2," he adds.
Following the Girish Kumar report, the Inter-Ministerial Committee January 2011 report
made recommendations to reduce the exposure to 450 mw/m2. "However, even that hasn’t
been implemented yet," laments Kumar.
By the end of 2010, India had 5.4 lakh cell phone towers, of which Delhi alone has 5, 364,
including legal and illegal ones.