Worried about the cellphone towers bristling over the Sahayadri Government Guest House in Malabar Hill, actor-producer Juhi Chawla recently had an independent audit conducted to assess the levels of Electro Magnetic Radiation at the site. "The report was startling," said the wellknown actor, speaking at Indian Merchants' Chamber (IMC) yesterday.
"The radiation levels were higher even than the extreme high end of 2,000 megawatt per square meter all around my house! This is a cause for concern, not only for my family, but also for all the people living in our neighbourhood and similar neighbourhoods throughout the city!
"I have sent a letter to our Member of Parliament Milind Deora about this problem and I ask you all under the banner of IMC to do something to address this serious problem," she said. Ms Chawla added that safe limits recognized for such radiation was less than 600 MW/sq m.
Responding to these concerns, Mr Shailesh Haribhakti, Chairman of IMC's Combating Global Warming Committee said that it was urgent for concerned citizens and IMC would take up this issue for conducting mass awareness programmes. However, Mr Haribhakti suggested preparing a background paper by conducting systematic research followed by a consultative discussion of the stakeholders.
Mr. Shishir Tamotia, Co-Chairman Combating Global Warming Committee, supported the suggestion and said that in India the norms for constructing mobile tower should be stricter than the international norms as the density of people is higher here.
Mr. Haribhakti said that IMC would call a meeting of telecom industry representatives and regulatory body TRAI to seek a solution to this widespread grave problem, in order to ensure that citizens' health was safeguarded without compromising the quality of cellphone services. "IMC will organize seminars and workshops to achieve this objective at the earliest," he mentioned.
Mrs Smita Dandekar, President of IMC Ladies' Wing, remarked, "In most countries of Europe, no cell phone towers are allowed to be built within 100 metres of anybody's residence. However, the density of population in our city does not permit this luxury in Indian cities."
She was optimistic however that with the advent of 3G with its wider spectrum, the intensity of radiation would drop dramatically.
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