City school blames mobile towers for five cancer cases

Sanjay, 16, a student of Happy Home and School for the Blind, Worli, was detected with brain tumour last year. His teacher, Jyoti Patil, 49, was diagnosed with breast cancer this year.

Sanjay, 16, a student of Happy Home and School for the Blind, Worli, was detected with brain tumour last year. His teacher, Jyoti Patil, 49, was diagnosed with breast cancer this year.

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In the past two years, five people at the school have been diagnosed with cancer, and none of them have any family history.

While there is no conclusive evidence of the health impacts of mobile phone tower radiation, school authorities believe that the 10 towers around the school have caused this. The school caretaker succumbed to cancer in 2011.

"The school is more than 40 years old but is it only now that there are cancer cases, after the towers were installed a decade ago," said director Meher Banaji.

Rajan Mathews, director general, Cellular Operators Association of India, refutes this, but doctors differ.

"Continuous prolonged exposure is dangerous. Effects could range from genetic damage to malignancy," said Dr Ashish Mehta, neurosurgeon, Breach Candy Hospital.