The news comes in from Delhi, where the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Delhi License Service Area (LSA) today organised an awareness webinar on “EMF Emissions and Telecom Towers”. For those unaware, DoT has been running public advocacy programme to make the general public aware of the need for mobile towers and dispel myths regarding the health effects of EMF exposure from mobile towers and the session organised today was a part of the initiative.
The Need for Awareness Among the Public
The webinar was addressed by a number of known names like Shri Nizamul Haq, Advisor, DoT, New Delhi, Shri Arun Kumar, DDG, DoT, Delhi LSA. Presentation on various aspects of EMF and steps taken by DoT was covered by Shri Vijay Prakash, Director and Shri Kamal Tripathi, ADG, DoT, Delhi LSA. In addition to this, various health-related queries and myths about the harmful effect of EMF radiations from mobile towers were also clarified by a medical expert, Dr Vivek Tandon, Associate Professor (Neurosurgery), All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi. Shri Nizamul Haque, Advisor, DoT, Delhi LSA talked about the importance of telecommunications as an effective tool for the socio-economic development of a nation. He stated that it has become a core infrastructure for rapid growth and modernisation of various sectors of the economy and to provide the best quality of telecommunication service to the customers, the expansion of mobile networks including tower infrastructure is inevitable. Shri Arun Kumar, DDG and Shri Vijay Prakash, Director, Delhi LSA further shed light on the EMF emissions from a mobile tower suggesting that there is no convincing scientific evidence of it causing adverse health effects and the emissions are actually below the safe limits prescribed by International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) and recommended by World Health Organisation (WHO). Furthermore, Dr Vivek Tandon, Associate Professor at AIIMS Delhi clarified various myths about health-related issues due to EMF radiations from mobile towers and handsets. He stated that misconceptions among a section of the population around the health hazards of EMF radiations should not override the factual information made available to us through scientific research. It is to be noted that DoT, through its field units has already taken necessary steps and adopted stricter norms for safety from EMF radiation that is emitted from mobile towers.
