An Indian parliamentary panel is asking the country’s Environment Ministry to comprehensively look into the effects of cell tower radiation on humans and animals, saying it is of “great concern.”
The committee on Demands for Grants, which is part of the Indian Ministry of Finance, made the recommendation saying, “The Ministry should evolve a mechanism to create awareness on the subject among the people. … This issue has to be addressed comprehensively and public hearings with stakeholders should be the basis for further action. … The judgments of various courts on this issue need to be implemented forthwith.”
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So far, the Environment Ministry has been indifferent to the recommendation deciding against tightening radiation emission norms in December of last year.
In a deposition, the Department of Telecommunication, said the normal radio frequency exposure limit has been reduced to 1/10th of the existing limits prescribed by the International Commission on Non-Ionising Radiation Protection. They claimed the cell tower radiation was not an issue for the health of citizens.
The committee set forth an action plan starting with more funding for research.
“There is a need to effectively monitor the effect of radiation from cell towers etc., and the number of inspectors available for the purpose needs to be significantly enhanced by the concerned administrative Ministry,” the panel said.
Meanwhile, the American Cancer Society said on its website that, while “some people have expressed concern that living, working, or going to school near a cell phone tower might increase the risk of cancer or other health problems. At this time, there is very little evidence to support this idea. In theory, there are some important points that would argue against cellular phone towers being able to cause cancer.”
While they admit that there is still little research directly on the effects of cell towers and cancer risk in humans, they do point to a British research study that compared a group of more than 1,000 families of young children with cancer against a similar group of families of children without cancer.
Based on the distance from the home to the nearest tower and the amount of energy given off by nearby towers, “the study found no link between a mother’s exposure to the towers during pregnancy and the risk of early childhood cancer.”
The Secretary of the Department of Science and Technology informed the committee that 79 research proposals have been shortlisted.
