Delegates during an outreach and awareness programme was organized under the aegis of Department of Telecommunications (DoT) in Chandigarh.
Chandigarh, October 21, 2016
Telecom towers are critical installations on which the backbone of wireless communication rests and unfounded apprehensions around EMF emissions and mobile towers have the potential to derail our growth story.
J.S. Deepak, Secretary, Ministry of Communications 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.
He was speaking in an outreach and awareness programme was organized under the aegis of Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on sharing scientific studies and the current government and regulatory ecosystem in India on Electromagnetic Field (EMF) Emissions and Mobile Towers, here on Friday.
The program highlighted that the mobile towers in India are safe and the emissions are within and often much below the prescribed norms of the DoT. It was further highlighted that government of India has very strict norms on monitoring and compliance, comparable with international best practices and there are no scientific studies linking mobile EMF emissions with human health hazards.
The DoT has already prescribed strict precautionary norms for exposure limit for the Radio Frequency Field (Base Station Emissions) which is ten times more stringent than the existing limits prescribed by ICNIRP and recommended by WHO. Infact 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.
J.S. Deepak, Secretary, DoT, Ministry of Communications and Chairman, Telecom Commission, delivered the inaugural address. Sarvesh Kaushal, Chief Secretary, Punjab and Depinder Singh Dhesi, Chief Secretary, Haryana, graced the occasion as the Chief Guests in the inaugural session of this programme. Several senior officers from the Central Government, States of Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh, eminent persons and public representatives were also present. An expert panel comprising of telecom officers from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and doctors presented the scientific facts clarifying various myths on possible health hazards from mobile tower radiation.
Delivering the inaugural address, J.S. Deepak, Secretary, DoT, brought out the important role played by mobile telephony and various benefits derived from it, at an individual, social and national level. He emphasised that 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.
Dr. R.M. Chaturvedi, DDG-CS, DoT, pointed out that WHO has referred to approximately 25,000 studies, conducted around the world over the past 30 years, and based on an in-depth review of scientific literature, has concluded: “Despite the feeling of some people that more research needs to be done, scientific knowledge in this area is now more extensive than for most chemicals. Current evidence does not confirm the existence of any health consequences from exposure to low level electromagnetic fields.”