#VinitasPune: Are We Compromising Safety For Stronger Mobile Networks?

Telecommunication Towers
Image used for representation only

How many people know that RTI data has revealed that of the approximately 2700 mobile towers installed in our city, 75% are unauthorised/ do not have all the requisite permissions from the various authorities…

Clusters of them that dot rooftops emit potentially hazardous levels of radiation through the electro-magnetic waves that they effuse, and yet, there is little you can do to protect your self.

Last week, the Supreme Court accepted noted Bollywood star, Juhi Chawla’s plea for stringent norms for construction of mobile towers to minimise the hazards of radiation emanated through the electro-magnetic energy (EME) they emit.

Pune has mobile towers on several buildings, most of which are installed in clusters and belong to different mobile companies. It’s impossible to miss this ugly sight, but in the eagerness to enjoy a ‘strong network’ for your mobile, this issue is trivialised…

There is little talk about the potential dangers of radiation that is allegedly affecting people in close proximity and apparently causing serious health issues, including hypertension, endocrine issues and even cancer.

Scientifically established globally, public safety against EME is essential for safeguarding citizens’ health. As a consequence, most Western nations have stringent norms for installation of towers.

To put it simply, the radiation emitted from these towers is hundreds of times more than the natural radiation emanated by the Sun’s rays. So you can imagine its adverse impact on human bodies!

Pune’s Suresh Karve, a senior citizen, has been fighting for this cause since the last five years for removal of two (unauthorised) mobile towers installed in his neighbourhood in Deccan area.

Using the Right to Information Act and innumerable follow ups and confrontations with the PMC and MSEDCL, Karve succeeded in the removal of the two towers.

Incidentally, Juhi Chawla campaigned rigorously and forced Mumbai’s municipal corporation to remove 13 such mobile towers in and around her residential neighbourhood.

Karve has been extensively campaigning to create awareness amongst citizens and empowering them to fight for their right and not allow unauthorised mobile towers installed near their houses.

No rules existed for installation of mobile towers until March 2014. However, since then, the state government has put a policy in place, wherein mobile towers should be 100 metres away from residential neighbourhoods, hospitals and schools.

It is also mandatory to have periodic audits to ensure that public areas are within safe EME limits and penalty is levied for violation of these norms.

However, the PMC does not seem to take this issue seriously. Rues Karve, ‘by March 2014 hundreds of mobile towers had already been installed and now builders make contracts with mobile tower companies for allowing terrace space for installation of these towers. This is the reason why you will find these in abundance over newly constructed buildings.’’

Karve, who measures the level of radiation with the ‘Electro Smog Meter’ was invited by Jagruk Nagarik Sanghatana, a NGO in Akurdi last month, for recording radiation levels in a residential bungalow colony.

Dr Suresh Beri, who leads this NGO, is campaigning vociferously in the PCMC area against installation of mobile towers, several of which lack all requisite permissions and are posing serious health issues.

Says Karve, ‘in this residential colony, there are mobile towers at a distance of just 10 meters from the next house.

The levels on the terrace of the adjoining house were around100mW/sq.m. and inside the house was around 50 mW/sqm (million watts per square metre), which is very high. Incidentally all these towers lack authorisation.’’

Recently, Dr Beri steered a house-to-house study through the members of Jagruk Nagrik Sanghatana and has filed an online grievance complaint with the Department of Telecommunication here: http://dot.gov.in/public-grievances. The complaint has made some hard hitting revelations.

[The study was carried out in Sector Nos. 28, 27 A and 25 of Nigdi Pradhikaran. Sector Nos. 28 and 27 A are dotted with mobile towers while LIC Colony, Sindhunagar in Sector No 25 does not have a single mobile tower.

Members carried out a survey of 80 houses in proximity to the Late Sanjay Kale ground at Sector 28, Nigdi Pradhikaran. A total of 383 people reside in these 80 houses. An unauthorised mobile tower with 10 antennas is located atop a building on Plot No. 182 for the last nine years.

Five residents of the vicinity have been diagnosed with cancer and three of them have died over the last four years. As many as 20 people were diagnosed to be suffering from heart diseases, of which five have died. Among the patients, the number of women is higher than men as women stay in the house for almost 24 hours a day and are therefore more likely to be exposed to the EME.

Members also conducted a survey of 98 houses in LIC Colony-Sindhunagar area where there is not a single mobile tower. A total of 407 people live in these 98 houses. Not a single case of cancer has been diagnosed in the area while the number of heart disease and high blood pressure patients is three and 37 respectively. Not a single patient of heart disease has died. The 40 patients include 18 women and 22 men]

These study findings come notwithstanding assertions made by mobile companies and government bodies stating that towers do not negatively impact human health.

Apparently, 99% of the 400 mobile towers in areas under the Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) and Pimpri Chinchwad New Township Development Authority (PCNTDA) are structures that do not have all the necessary permissions and are located in close vicinities of residential buildings, hospitals and schools.

Dr Suresh Beri will soon present the report of the study to the PCMC and PCNTDA. Besides,  he stated that he would be filing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) in the Bombay High Court.

In another case, Dr Suresh Gokhale is fighting tooth and nail with the PMC as a cluster of 18 mobile towers have been installed on the terrace of his hospital on Shivaji Road in downtown Pune.

Last year a Walkeshwar resident in Mumbai finally sought legal intervention and forced the BMC to remove the four mobile towers in his building. The telecom company too had to pay compensation to his housing society for the structural damage caused to the building due to installation of these towers.

This reminds me of the Usha Kiran Building in Mumbai which had become infamous for cancer cases among its residents allegedly caused by mobile towers on its terrace. This had then propelled several experts to study the relation between cancer and EME radiation.

Irrespective of what figures and studies may reveal, this issue certainly deserves attention and greater awareness building. We cannot ignore the imminent need for strict enforcement of safety protocols with respect to mobile towers, authorised or otherwise!

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#All views expressed in this column are those of the author and Pune365 does not necessarily subscribe to them. 

 

Vinita Deshmukh