No conclusive proof that mobile radiation is harmful: BSNL

Official says Indian standards against radiation more stringent than US, Europe

There is no decisive data or evidence so far to show that radiations from mobile phones or towers have adverse health or environmental effects in India, a top BSNL official here said.

"There is no conclusive study, data or evidences about the bad health or ecological effects of radiations from mobile phones or towers in India," Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) chief general manager (northeast circle one) D P Singh told reporters.

He said, "India's stringent measures against radiations from mobile phones or Base Tower Stations (BTS) are ten times more than the USA and European countries."

According to the officer, there are about 775,000 BTSs in the country and so far only about 90 cases have been found to be non-compliant by the department of telecommunication (DoT) and penalty has been imposed on the operators.

"A penalty of Rs.10 lakh has been imposed in each case on defaulting operators in case any BTS is found to be non-compliant," said Singh, who was earlier looking after the radiations related affairs in the DoT.

The BSNL official said that regular audit of electromagnetic field levels from the mobile towers through TERM (Telecom Enforcement Resource Monitoring) cells of the DoT is being done to ensure that prescribed standards are implemented.

Singh said that the World Health Organisation (WHO) has done a large number of studies over the past two decades to assess whether mobile phones and BTS pose potential health risk.

"A section of so-called experts and environmentalists to achieve their personal gain and business benefit are occasionally spreading exaggerated facts about radiations from mobile phone or towers based on some myth and falsehood," the BSNL CGM said.

"These experts and environmentalists without any conclusive study and facts sometimes say that sparrows and other birds are vanishing, affecting breeding or reproduction, and foods due to radiation from mobile phone or BTS," he added.

"Had this (radiations) been harmful, Europe and the US would have done away with it long ago. Here, people make occasional hullabaloo about the harm being done by mobile towers, but actually nothing like that happens."

The CGM said that the DoT has recently sanctioned Rs.5,336 crore for the improvement of mobile and internet services in the eight northeastern states.

He said the BSNL would set up several hundred Wi-Fi hotspots in northeastern states soon, besides improving machinery and quality of service in the region.