Kerala BTS given clean chit for complying radiation norms

The Kerala cell of Telecom Enforcement Resource and Monitoring (TERM), under the Department of Telecommunications, has given a clean chit to Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) in the state, popularly known as cell phone towers with respect to compliance of radiation norms.
The Kerala cell conducted physical testing and verification of over 7000 BTS and all were found to be compliant with the latest radiation norms adopted by the department, a press release said.
There are over 35,000 BTSs in Kerala and stations for testing were selected to include all types of densely populated sites in urban, semi urban and rural areas according to information available from the cell. Compliance is ensured for all sites through various methodologies prescribed by the DoT, it said.

The TERM cells have the authority to deal with matters pertaining to electro-magnetic field radiation from the towers.
The Kerala cell, based here, with jurisdiction over Kerala and Lakshadweep, is among the over 30 cells in the country.
The Union government had adopted International Commission for Non-Ionising Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) guidelines in respect of monitoring of EMF radiation from cell phone towers.
The cellphone service providers are directed to report radiation levels through self-certification which are verified by TERM cells which carry out compliance monitoring on random basis for 10 per cent of towers. If a site fails to meet the EMF radiation norms, penalty of Rs 10 lakh is levied on the service provider per BTS, according to the TERM cell.

The limiting reference levels of radiation from mobile towers have been reduced to one tenth of the limit prescribed by ICNIRP with effect from September 2012. The ICNIRP radiation norms range from 4.5 watt per square metre for 900 MHz frequency to 10.5 watt per square metre for 2100 MHz.