Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) will launch public awareness campaign to implement policy to check mobile phone towers hazards in true spirit and address public concerns. The government has already unveiled the policy to check health-related effects of mobile phone towers or antennas installed by mobile phone operators in different parts of the country.
The Ministry of Information Technology is taking all necessary actions as relevant to the policy measures and issued a policy to the regulator PTA to establish national guidelines for mitigating environmental and health hazards and address public concerns about radiation effects of the infrastructure.
Due to heavy investment of operators in roll-out, the total number of cellular mobile and Wireless Local Loop (WLL) base stations in the country stand at around 10,000 and is expected to reach a figure of more than 13,000 to 15,000 this year.
While development of cellular infrastructure is the key indicator of the growth of telecom industry, there are some public concerns and negative perceptions relating to health hazards due to base station towers.
It is estimated, in major cities, only about 3 percent of antenna sites, currently commissioned will have to be re-designed or improved, it is officially learnt here on Wednesday. PTA will give a timeline of six months for such improvements and at the same time concerns of local authorities and provincial governments will be addressed through harmonised guidelines for the entire country.
PTA will also conduct independent, random, ongoing audit of base stations to ensure compliance to the guidelines about levels of exposure. This will ensure that the public will be protected against any radiation exposure risks within guideline levels.
The Authority will also ensure that the information on the audit surveys is posted on its website and is readily accessible. Radiation standards will also be published on PTA website and media, the Ministry and PTA in collaboration with the industry will devise and execute a well structured media campaign to educate the public about safety standards related to radiation from base station antennas. The media campaign will also cover the implementation of guidelines and availability of related information on PTA website.
PTA in its regulations on the subject will ensure that appropriate measures are adopted by operators to follow the base station sitting criteria and work practices proposed in the study.
The adoption of proposed guidelines will harmonise the antenna deployment and work practices and bring installations in line with international practices and address perceptional concerns of general public. With the media awareness campaign and public availability of data on base station antennas and the audit trail data of all antennas, on the PTA website, it is expected that public perceptions about health hazards will improve.
The state of the art technology for antennas currently being deployed has led to conclusion that exposure limits will not be violated unless the antenna sites are deployed in such a manner that they directly face populated buildings.
One must recall that the Cabinet instructed the Ministry of IT to conduct a thorough study and take policy steps required to minimise the negative impacts of base station proliferation across the country. A detailed research study has been conducted by the Ministry of IT to take stock of the situation.
Radiation hazards from the base stations were thoroughly analysed in light of international research and recommendations of standards bodies. The study report was also circulated to the ministries of Health, Environment, PTA and the industry stakeholders for comments and recommendations.
The study has concluded that although a bulk of medical research material is available on the health related effects of electromagnetic radiation yet no conclusive evidence of hazards to human health has been established for possible exposure levels vis-a-vis current arrangement of cellular towers.
Only if a human being comes directly in front of an antenna radiating surface (not the tower), within more than eight meters (25-feet) can there be a possibility of exposure to radiation levels detrimental to human health.
Most of the countries around the world have adopted one of the standards and in view of the study and extensive consultation, Ministry of IT has decided that Pakistan also needed to adopt a precautionary approach in light of non-conclusiveness of international research and put in place safeguards against any remote chances of health hazards due to cellular antennas.
Meanwhile, National Assembly in its current session referred the matter of emission of radiation from mobile telephone to its Standing Committee on Environment. MNA Syed Haider Abbas Rizvi, on an adjournment motion, drew the attention of the House towards emission of radiation from different towers installed in the populated areas.
Parliamentary Secretary from Cabinet Division, Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan told the House that PTA made the cellular companies to abide by all safety measures. She dispelled the impression that towers were hazardous for human health and said, around six billion population across the globe use mobile phones and there was no evidence of any threat.
She said in some countries mobile phones had been under use for the last quarter century but there was no complaint of its hazardous impact. Firdous Ashiq said, PTA had a set criteria for installation of these towers and all companies fulfil security requirements at the time of issuance of licenses and later on.
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