Cell tower norms to get stricter

Soon, you can expect tougher guidelines to deal with radiation with cellular towers. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is in the process of finalising tougher norms for radiation emitting from cell towers.

Soon, you can expect tougher guidelines to deal with radiation with cellular towers. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is in the process of finalising tougher norms for radiation emitting from cell towers. The department hopes that these new norms will help tackling the problem of excessive radiation and the health hazards that it has been causing.

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Ex-advisor to the DoT, Ram Kumar, who also served on the panel of the inter-ministerial committee on electro-magnetic field (EMF) radiation said that one of the new norms would be reducing the permissible limit for emitting radiation.

Kumar was speaking at a seminar organised by the Bombay Telephone Users Association, to commemorate 25 years of its existence. The seminar focused on the issue of cell tower radiation, and the debate over its harmful effects.

Hindustan Times has been consistently reporting about how experts have been dismayed by the regulations adopted by the DoT, thanks to the loose norms that guide the country’s regulation of mobile tower radiation.

India currently follows the International Commission for Non Ionising Radiation Protection (ICNRIP), a German independent body’s guidelines set for exposure to radiation. The glitch, experts point out, is that the guidelines are outdated.

Kumar said, “We will soon be adopting one tenth of the existing standards. As a result, the current 9.2 watts per metre

will now come down to less than one.”