Criticism
forces municipality to finalise a long-debated policy on mobile towers,
authorising only one on every building
The city’s heritage precinct Khotachiwadi with its
quaint East Indian homes is used to battling builders. But now residents are
coming together to fight for their very lives. At least three families living
cheek by jowl with a cell phone tower have members suffering from cancer. Now
they want to get rid of the tower — which came up in the heart of their
neighbourhood in 2007 — as soon as possible.
“I had gone on a holiday and I got a stomach upset. A
series of tests later, I was diagnosed with cancer,” said Jeanette Phillips
(71), who lives opposite the tower, only 15 metres away. “At first, I didn’t
link it to the tower. But I heard that our neighbours Marc and Bernice were
also suffering from cancer,” she added.
Khotachiwadi is just one of several localities in the
city which are rising up against cell phone towers. A building in suburban Vile
Parle and Usha Kiran high-rise in south Mumbai are among others to have turned
against the towers after residents were diagnosed with brain cancer.
Data with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)
shows there are as many as 3,705 mobile towers. Of these 1,830 are said to be
illegal. Under fire from citizens, the municipality on Monday finalised a
long-debated policy on mobile towers. The policy mandates that only one tower
be allowed on every building. Written consent from 70 per cent of occupants and
every person on the topmost floor of a building is mandatory. The policy also
prohibits installation of mobile phone towers in schools, colleges, hospitals,
orphanages, child rehabilitation centres and old age homes.
What is the existing research? Although radiation from
mobile phones and towers has been studied in the West for almost two decades,
there is hardly any India-specific research. Therefore, the health risks are
still a matter of debate.
Many ailments
Anti-radiation activists, however, point to the
Bioinitiative 2012 report based on research from 10 countries, including India.
The report said the most common ailments due to continuous base station-level
exposure are sleep disorder, headache, irritability, concentration problems,
memory loss and depression. The severe problems include seizures, paralysis,
miscarriages, irreversible infertility and cancer. Children, pregnant women and
old people are the most vulnerable, the report said.
An Interphone study of May 2011 shows that excessive
users of mobile phones (half an hour a day over 8-10 years) have quadrupled
brain tumour risk.
What is radiation? Experts explain that the
Electromagnetic Field Radiation (EMF) which is non-ionising is harmful. Radiation
from WiFi and microwaves is of a similar nature. The light from the sun that
reaches the earth is also largely composed of non-ionising radiation. “Although
sunlight is good, can you imagine being continually exposed to the sun without
any relief?” asked P.R. Munshi, Member of Indians for Safe Environments. Mr.
Munshi said towers in themselves are not harmful, unlike the antennae which
emit radiation.
Girish Kumar of IIT Bombay said, “The risk depends on
proximity to a tower and the power transmitted by each antenna. The greater the
power and the number of antennae, the higher is the radiation. Maximum
radiation is in the front direction of the building. That is when the entire
zone is converted into an open microwave oven.”
The guidelines of the Department of Telecommunications
which became effective in June, brought down the electromagnetic frequency
limits from 4,500 to 450 milliwatts per square metre. However, critics say even
this is too high. “450 milliwatts per square metre is five times the frequency
of the maximum frequency recorded in Mumbai,” said Mr. Munshi.
However, these concerns have been dismissed by network
providers. The city requires at least 2,000 cell phone towers for adequate
coverage. They said. “Every cancer is not related to radiation. There are
causes other than radiation that are responsible for cancer,” said P.
Ramakrishna, advisor to the Cellular Operators’ Association recently. Those
opposing cell phone towers are unnecessarily raising alarm, he said. Network
providers claim they are adhering to all the government guidelines.
The debate on cell phone towers and accompanying risks
is likely to be a long-drawn one. However, the BMC’s policy is a stepping stone
in regulating the system.
