Telecom towers don’t cause cancer: Govt, Trai to sensitise RWAs

The department of telecommunications (DoT) and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) will launch an awareness campaign by October end to sensitise resident welfare associations (RWAs) that exposure to telecom towers do not cause cancer or other diseases.

The department of telecommunications (DoT) and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) will launch an awareness campaign by October end to sensitise resident welfare associations (RWAs) that exposure to telecom towers do not cause cancer or other diseases.

The ministry along with the regulator has set up a joint committee of officials for the purpose which will facilitate setting up of towers in areas where residents have opposed it.

The decision was taken last week after a meeting between telecom secretary Rakesh Garg and newly appointed Trai chairman Ram Sewak Sharma.

The government though is not claiming that the towers do not emit radiation.

“There is radiation in everyday life. The question is whether the radiation from telecom towers is harmful. It is not... And it is strictly monitored,” communications minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told HT.

Many courts, including the high court’s of Kerala, Gujarat, and Allahabad, have taken the same position as Prasad. As have many experts, who say that there is no evidence to establish a causal relationship between tower radiation and cancer.