M A I N   N E W S

Radiation from handsets raises heat & worry 
Girja Shankar Kaura/TNS

While in their own country they ensure an extremely low level of radiation from handsets, their handsets in India amit unacceptably high levels of radiation, he alleged. The government, he said, had not been pro-active enough in monitoring the suppliers. There was, therefore, an urgent need for the government to enforce international standards in the country, he added. The foreign manufacturers must be made to use the highest standard of technology that they use in their own countries.

According to international data, as much as two-third of the global radiation is generated in India although it has fewer subscribers than the rest of the world combined.

“A telecom tower company in this country uses two billion litres of diesel,” Mehrotra said. One base station generates 60 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year, he claimed. Since the telecom sector comrpises less than half per cent of the total Information Communication Technology industry, argued Rajan Mathew, it would be unfair to blame the sector alone. Mathew, Director General of the Cellular Operators’ Association of India, also claimed that a study conducted by IIT, Madras, telecom operators and Madurai Engineering College had found the radiation and pollution levels much lower, in fact a thousandth part, of what international standards mandated at each site of the tower. The total pollution level from the entire ICT industry is only two per cent of the pollution in the country, he asserted.“Operators are now also moving from passive infrastructure sharing to active infrastructure sharing. To reduce pollution, operators are now using base stations that do not require air-conditioning and diesel gensets are being substituted by hybrid ones,” he added.

Several telecom executives emphasised on the need for greater availability of grid power in rural areas to obviate the need for setting up diesel gensets. “The government must give power to towers and base stations to reduce use of diesel,” BSNL CMD Gopal Das said, adding that its support was also needed to offset the high cost of using alternative sources of energy like solar panels. The BSNL is running pilot projects using solar panels in Bihar and Maharashtra. It is also using wind power in Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan.

The Controversy

Manufacturers voice alarm at high level of radiation.

Say foreign telecom suppliers not adhering to global norms while supplying equipment to India.

Operators contest figures.