Radiation affects health: global report

A global report published on Sunday has turned the tables on cellular phone operators and even the civic body, who have been claiming that there is no “conclusive evidence” to prove the correlation between exposure to mobile tower radiation and health problems, reports Reetika Subramanian.

A global report published on Sunday has turned the tables on cellular phone operators and even the civic body, who have been claiming that there is no “conclusive evidence” to prove the correlation between exposure to mobile tower radiation and health problems.

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“Continuous base station-level exposure can result in illness and have biological effects that can interfere with normal body processes, prevent the healing of damaged DNA, produce immune system imbalances, cause metabolic disruption and lower resilience to disease,” states the Bioinitiative 2012 report.

The report has been published by 29 independent scientists and health experts from 10 countries, including Sweden, India, Italy, Greece, US and Russia, after 1,800 papers written by scientists and health experts globally were studied and analysed over a period of five years.

This is the second edition of the report, which was first published in 2007.

The report has studied the effects of exposure to electromagnetic field radiation on neurology and behaviour, gene and protein expression, stress response, fertility and reproduction, and cancer, among other things.

Reiterating the need to adhere to suggested global radiation emission levels, telecom expert Anuj Jain said: “Based on the findings, the government should formulate its own study on the correlation between health issues and radiation.”

“The report indicates that India has set a high limit for radiation emission from mobile towers,” said Professor Girish Kumar from IIT Bombay. “It is of utmost necessity to bring down the permissible limit to global safety standards.”

The 29-member panel of health experts and scientists included two Indian professors, Professor Jitendra Behari and Professor Paulraj Rajamani from Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi. The duo studied the effects of radiation on fertility and reproduction.