Are you worried about level of mobile tower radiation inside your home? Get it checked by DoT

Worried about the electro magnetic radiation (EMF) coming from the mobile tower emission and are concerned about its health implications? If yes, then you can ask the department of telecommunications (DoT) to come and check the radiation level in your home and know that is it beyond the fixed levels or not. If radiation levels go higher than the government-mandated limits than the erring entities will be penalised for violating the norms.

Increase in demand of mobile phones across the country has led to a quantum increase in the number of mobile towers. But, the telecom department has also set norms, which should be mandatorily followed while setting these towers. Indian norms had prescribed stricter limits for radiation emission in comparison to global standards. Despite this, people fear that the radiation from the mobile tower in their locality can harm their health.

If you have any doubts and feel that the electro magnetic radiation from the mobile tower near your house is above the defined limit than you can complain the same by visiting DoT's portal tarangsanchar.gov.in. The portal, Tarang Sanchar, will allow you to check electro magnetic radiation (EMF) compliance status of the mobile tower. Apart from this, you can also take help of the telecom department and find radiation level inside your room. DoT engineers will visit your house and provide you with a complete report on the radiation level in each room.

"We have facilities that will allow us to help our countrymen in checking emission level at their homes and get to know that the emission levels are normal and within decided limits. Any person can request for EMF emission measurement at a location by clicking a button on the website. They will have to pay a nominal fee of Rs 4,000 to avail the service", says RM Chaturvedi, DDG, DoT. He added, "The tests will be conducted by a team of engineers from DoT, who will also answer to all the queries of the requestor and provide the test report".

Possibilities are there that base stations (BTSs) of more than one operator can be available on a mobile tower. But norms say that the radiation released from the mobile tower must not be more than 1 watt per square meter in the surroundings as well as the home.

A person can approach the telecom department with his complaint, in case, where the radiation from a tower is not compliant with the EMF emission norms that are defined by the government. Every operator will be slapped with a penalty of Rs 10 lakh if the complaint is found to be true. In addition, DoT will be shutting down the BTS placed on the tower, if the emission levels are not brought down within a specified time limit.

RM Chaturvedi added, "Every state has a senior officer and people can approach him with their complaints. The officer is responsible for checking the emission level of the tower. He/she will slap a penalty of Rs 10 lakh per case if the radiation levels are found to be higher than the specified levels. And the BTS can be closed if the radiations are not fixed within the stipulated time".

At present, there is about 18 lakh BTS in the country. Department of telecom conduct radiation level test on 10 per cent of the these BTS annually.
According to DoT, no studies including the study from WHO has never been able to provide any scientific evidence related to health concerns related low power electro magnetic radiation (EMF) that is used for mobile communication.

(Transcribed by Jitesh Kumar Jha)