Mobile phone towers: Send your concerns to Parliament

You will now be able to express your concerns over norms for setting up mobile phone towers, and its suspected health effects. Reetika Subramanian reports.

You will now be able to express your concerns over norms for setting up mobile phone towers, and its suspected health effects.

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In lieu of concerns raised about the suspected correlation between exposure to mobile phone towers and health hazards, the Parliamentary standing committee on information technology has invited public suggestions for its report-formulating process.

In addition to this, provisions have been made to receive oral evidence from experts, professionals and representatives of organisations, who want to present their stand in person.

“In view of the immense importance of the subject [norms for setting up telecom towers and harmful effects], the committee for the purpose of wider consultations invites suggestions from the public in general and experts, professionals, organisations, associations and stakeholders interested in the subject in particular,” states the advertisement published in a newspaper.

The committee, headed by Lok Sabha MP Rao Inderjit Singh, is examining norms specified to set up telecom towers, its harmful effects and laying down security standards for expansion of telecom facilities.

In September 2012, the Union Department of Telecommunication (DoT) revised the electromagnetic field radiation norms to 450 milliwatts/square metre.