On many quiet dawns while having my daily walk I used to see a garland of high flying cranes in majestic formation led by the ablest in the group. Such sights are becoming fewer and fewer. We tend to gloss over many aberrations even though these may be happening under our nose. Take the case of crows dying at different parts of the state. It looks as if the days are not far off when we would be deprived of this benign creature which has been, for years, ringing nature’s wake up call at dawn. We may soon be deprived of this gifted scavenger who keeps our cities clean, free of charge. Take the case of the frogs and sparrows; they have become scarcer day by day. This attitude of ours, call it our tolerance or indifference, has led us to a situation where we have chosen to be tolerant even to activities which are positively harmful to our health. The zeal with which we increase the number of kiosks in Bhubaneswar which sell the killer tobacco is indeed amazing. Even kiosks selling ‘healthy’ milk of OMFED flaunt tobacco pouches. We derive pleasure in adulterating milk meant for our young and growing children. We seem to have bought peace with aberrations; we have lost the spirit of combating evils. We look content; even rejoice, at the steady erosion of our valour.
I am discussing today about yet another development. This relates to the sphere of telecommunication. The sector has become especially important in recent years because of the enormous growth of information technology and its impact on the economy. The popularity of cell phones and wireless communication devices has resulted in a proliferation of cell phone towers across Indian cities and towns. While all of us have had our share of wisdom through mobile technology, it is now time to introspect and evaluate the problems that one could face because of cell phone towers being installed in residential areas.
We seem to be unaware that mobile phone towers crowding the city’s skyline are making the air toxic for us. Many people feel that these radiations could be harmful for people living in a 300 meter radius of the towers. Pregnant women and children seem to be in greater danger from cell phone towers than the normal population. It is very unfortunate to see huge cell towers thronging the rooftops in and around the residential apartments, hospitals and educational institutions and this has become more or less a common sight in cities across India. The younger the child, the deeper is the penetration of electromagnetic radiation as children’s skulls are thinner. Children, adolescents and pregnant women could be at greater risk. Radiation related health risks could include memory loss, lack of concentration and digestive disturbances.
In May 2011, the World Health Organisation’s International Agency for Research on Cancer announced that it was classifying electromagnetic fields from mobile phones and other sources as possibly carcinogenic to humans and advised the public to adopt safety measures to reduce exposure, like use of hands-free devices or texting. Some national radiation advisory authorities, including those of Austria, France, Germany and Sweden have recommended measures to minimize exposure to their citizens. Examples of the recommendations are:
Use hands-free to decrease the radiation to the head.
Keep the mobile phone away from the body.
Do not use telephone in a car without an external antenna.
While a person has a choice to use or not use a mobile phone and also has a choice over the extent of use of his mobile phone, a child and a pregnant lady living close to a mobile phone tower has no choice as they have to live at home and willy-nilly suffer the radiation. The state or the society need to intervene in such a situation. Why do we find such towers in residential areas? The telecommunication companies or service providers pay rent for the towers they erect. Property owners find it a good source of income by letting out roof tops or premises for towers. Where competition is high, rent could be as high as Rs30000/- per month in some cities.
It is interesting to find how some people have been taking up cudgels against mobile phone towers in residential areas. For example, Milind Bembalkar, a mechanical engineer, who runs his own business in Latur, 750 km from Mumbai, has been writing articles on the menace in Marathi newspapers and magazines for sometime. When in one article Bembalkar asked readers affected by mobile towers to get in touch with him, he was surprised to receive 300 letters. He also received phone calls from all over Maharashtra expressing concern and helplessness. Activists have realised that law does not help much. They find that Companies first erect the mobile towers and then get them regularised by paying a modest fine to the municipal authorities. Some complain that if a survey were to be carried out, it would show that most mobile phone towers have come up illegally.
It is time we made efforts to ensure that Department of Telecommunications finalised tougher norms for radiation emitting from cell phone towers. When we are convinced that mobile phone towers installed on top of buildings in residential areas could be a threat to human health, we must raise our voice against it. Cellular operators should be made to comply with certain norms. If authorities are slow in ensuring a healthy code, civil society should create a situation that the operators agree to certain norms. For example, no tower should be within a radius of one hundred metres of a hospital or educational institution; residential areas must be avoided; first preference for locating such towers should be given to wooded areas; second preference should be for open or public areas away from residential zones. Erection of towers must have prior permission from the Pollution Control authority and the municipal authority. Many cities have banned installation of such towers in residential area. In Bhubaneswar, however, there seems to be an eagerness for installing such towers in residential area. In BJB Nagar, where I live, I see many towers and apprehend that many more would come. There is need to make people aware of the ill effects of mobile towers in residential areas. A memorandum with the signatures of citizens demanding removal of mobile towers from the residential areas should be submitted to civic authorities. There is need to educate the younger generation on the health hazard of heavy use of mobile phones as well. We need to install hoardings and posters in various towns detailing the ill effects of excessive use of mobile phones and the towers in residential areas. We have downplayed the ill effects of the mobile phone usage and government had put no restraints on installation of the mobile phone towers in residential areas. But after the revelations of the World Health Organisation, government should formulate the laws and guidelines. Such towers which have come up in residential areas must be made to shift to safer zones within one year.
**************
0 comments:
Post a Comment