THE EFFECTS OF RADIATION FROM MOBILE TOWERS ON HUMAN LIFE ARE BEING STUDIED

Opinions have been divided on whether radiation from mobile towers affects human life or not. Some have claimed

that it is harmful to human life, while others have claimed that it has no effect. Due to which, there has been a trend of not allowing construction of mobile towers in houses and settlements lately. Which is affecting the telecom companies.

Locals have been complaining to service providers that they are not interested in having towers in many places, rather than radiating from the towers and affecting their health. That is why a meeting of the Ministry-level Development Problem Solving Committee recently directed the Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Nepal to conduct a technical study on whether the radiation emitted from mobile towers affects human health or how to mitigate the risks. However, authority itself had included it in the program of the current fiscal year 2078/079. Based on that, the authority has started the study process.

The authority on Sunday called for a public study proposal. The Authority has stated that applications for the study of emissions from mobile towers can be submitted till January 13. Based on the applications received by that date, in the final stage, preparations have been made to hand over the study to two companies according to the provinces. NEA has put forward this study in two packages. Provinces 1 and 2 are included in the first package. Among them, 600 mobile towers should be included in the study.

Similarly, Karnali and Far Western Provinces are included in the second package. Provision has been made to include about 400 mobile towers in that area in the study. The study is aimed at eliminating the dilemma of radiation emitted from towers in the market.

Earlier, the authority had prepared criteria for reducing the radiation emitted from mobile towers. Keeping in view the health and safety of the people, the authority has recently issued regulations in 2076 regarding the safety of the public and workers from electromagnetic radiation (EMR) generated from mobile towers. Under this, it is mentioned that the telecommunication service provider installing and operating the mobile tower should make arrangements to emit electromagnetic radiation only as prescribed. According to the regulations, different criteria have been set for the common man and the person working in the tower. It has been mentioned that the criteria of such radiation emission should also be different according to the radio frequency range.

As per the regulations, the electric field strength at the level of 10 to 400 MHz should be 28 volts per meter for the base station of mobile. Magnetic field strength should be 0.073 ampli per meter and power density should be 2 watts per square meter. Similarly, 400 to 2000 MHz, 2 to 300 GHz electric field strength, magnetic field strength and power density are different for ordinary people and workers. According to this, there is a provision that the tower should emit 5 times less electromagnetic radiation for the common man than the worker.

Despite such provisions, the authority has started the process to study the reality saying that the trend of not allowing construction of mobile towers in houses and settlements is increasing which will study the issue of emission of radiation from mobile towers and its effects on the human body.