A month after the Delhi High Court issued notices to the Delhi government and the Centre in a petition to stop installation of mobile towers near residential areas, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit ha

The “Report on possible impacts of communication towers on wildlife including birds and bees,” is a textbook example of how not to write scientific reports.

An expert committee, also comprising a few scientists from reputed institutions, was constituted in August 2010 by the Ministry of Environment and Forests to study the issue. It was on the basis of their recommendation that the Central Department of Telecommunications was recently directed to ensure that new mobile towers do not come up within a one-kilometre radius of existing towers.

New Delhi Telecom firms will make annual energy savings of as much as R10,000 crore over the next eight years if they adopt the Centre’s green telecom directive and phase out diesel consumption by 2020, a report released by an international NGO said on Tuesday.

According to the green directive, service providers have to ensure at least 75% of all telecom towers in rural areas and 33% in urban areas run on hybrid power — a combination of renewable energy and grid power — by 2020.

The Centre has told Parliament that the exposure limit for radio frequency fields (base station emissions) will be brought down to one-tenth of the existing level from September 1.

This direction was to have been implemented from April 1. However, on an examination of the impact of the revised Electric and Magnetic Field (EMF) exposure limit on area coverage and exclusion zone, self-certification compliance with the new norms has been extended.

The International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) guidelines of April 1998 say epidemiological studies on workers exposed to Electric and Magnetic Field (EMF) and the public have shown no major health effects associated with typical exposure environments.

The studies have yielded no convincing evidence that typical exposure levels lead to adverse reproductive outcomes or an increased cancer risk.

Emission from mobile towers will be reduced by 1/10 of the current standard

The government today said it will implement new tower emission norms from September 1, 2012 although there is no evidence that proves any adverse health effects due to radiations from mobile towers. As per the new norms, emission from mobile towers will be reduced by 1/10 of the current standards.

JAIPUR: The Rajasthan High Court has set a deadline of 10 days for the state government to formulate bylaws for governing the mobile phone towers. The court passed the order on Wednesday while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) over the health hazards due radiation of these towers.

Within the same duration of next 10 days, the government would have to remove mobile phone towers installed on all school buildings and hospitals in the state. In addition to this, the government has to conduct a survey (also in 10 days) and tell the court about the number of cancer patients who are living within the vicinity of cellphone towers.

Regular auditing, monitoring of radiations stressed

JAMMU: Taking serious note of the general complaints that Electro-Magnetic Radiations from the cell-phone towers have been leaving adverse impact on wildlife especially birds and bees, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests has issued detailed advisory containing the actions to be undertaken by various agencies in order to avoid the impacts of radiations on such species.

Radiation from mobile towers may have varying negative impact on wildlife especially birds and bees, according to the Environment Ministry.

Amid concerns over health hazards and impact on wildlife due to mobile tower radiation, the Environment Ministry has issued an advisory asking the Department of Telecommunications not to permit new mobile towers within a one-km radius of the existing ones. Noting there was a need to prevent the negative impact of electro-magnetic radiations (EMR) on birds and bees, the Ministry directed that the new towers should be constructed with utmost care and precautions 'so as not to obstruct flight path of birds, and also not to increase the combined radiation from all towers in the area'.