The Hindu : New Delhi News : PIL on cell phone towers' health hazards

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Sep 27, 2004

New Delhi

New Delhi

PIL on cell phone towers' health hazards

NEW DELHI, SEPT. 26. Mobile phone towers that have sprung up in various residential areas of the Capital are a potential health hazard threatening the people living around with diseases ranging from cancer to decrease in fertility levels, a PIL contended.

The PIL in Delhi High Court sought directions to stop or regulate erection of mobile phone towers in residential areas, in and around schools and other places of high human concentration saying they emitted radiation that was seriously affecting public health.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice B.C. Patel and Justice B.D. Ahmed, however, declined to entertain the petition on the ground that the petitioner had not done enough research on the issue.

The petition, filed by advocate A.K. Biswas, quoting various recent scientific studies and researches in developed countries that said Radio Frequency Radiations could cause diseases like cancer, sleep disorder, affect memory and immune system, impair nervous system, harm eyes and damage DNA, besides increase infertility.

Such 24 hour-pollution caused biological damage, especially among children and the old who had low immunity levels, it added. Erecting mobile phone masts and towers was an extension of industry and such commercial activity should not be allowed in residential areas, it said further. Besides violating the building by-laws, such towers also put extra load on the structures they stand on, which in most cases were not designed to take such extra load, it added.

Mobile towers not only spoil the aesthetics of the buildings they were constructed on but also were a threat to nearby buildings and passers-by, the petition claimed.

It alleged that civic and police agencies had failed to check the nuisance. -- UNI

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