Tell people that mobile towers are not harmful-Gujarat high court to government

Gujarat high court on Friday directed the state government and the Centre to create public awareness that they have no reason to fear the emission of radio active waves from mobile tower. The HC ordered so with observation that the use of the mobile phone, AM Radio, FM Radio etc. is more harmful to the human beings compared to the power emission from the Base Transceiver Stations and that of mobile towers.

The HC directed for widespread publicity in response to a PIL filed by residents of Muktipark society near Sola Railway Crossing that were opposing erection of a 4G tower by Reliance Jio Inficom Ltd. The bench of Chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and Jusice J B Pardiwala have said, "The authorities should through TV, radio etc. bring it to the notice of the people at large that there is no reason for them to fear the erection of the Base Transceiver Station, known as the Wi-Fi Mobile Tower. The reason why we are saying so is that the impression in the mind of a common man is that the Wi-Fi Mobile Towers erected all over the State has the potential to cause health hazard due to the emission of radio active waves from the said tower."

The HC accepted the contentions raised by Centre's counsel Shakeel Qureshi and company's counsel Mihit Thakore and observed that the surveys conducted in proximity to the base stations indicated that the public was exposed to extremely low intensity RF fields in the environment and all the evidences indicated that they were unlikely to pose the risk to health.

The court order reads, "The Radiation Protection Division (NRPB) of the UK Health Protection Agency in the year 2000 has reported that the balance of evidence indicates that there is no general risk to the health of the people living near the base stations on the basis that the exposures are expected to be small fractions of guidelines."

Source: TOI