Millions of people around the world use mobilephones as a communication tool everyday. Base stations or telecommunication towers are continuously being erected. Because of this, scientists worldwide are concerned about the potential health risks associated with the use of this device. Even small adverse effects on health could have major public health implications.

In Pakistan, three years ago there were only a few thousands people using mobile phone, today more than 23 million people have mobile phones. This is a fast growing industry in Pakistan like elsewhere in the world. Members of the public have been expressing concerns about possible health hazards from exposure to Radio Frequency (RF) emissions, as a result of the increasing number of towers being erected for the installation of radio transmitting equipment for cellular services, close to homes and schools throughout the country.

Mobile phone base stations are low-power multi-channel two-way radios, they produce radio-frequency (RF) energy (that's how they communicate), and they expose people near them to RF energy. However, because both the phones and the base stations are low power (short range), the RF energy exposure levels from them are generally very low.

There is a robust and ongoing controversy over many aspects of RF health effects. While no one disagrees that serious health hazards occur when living cells in the body are heated, as happens with high intensity RF exposure (just like in a microwave oven), scientists are currently still investigating the health hazards of low intensity exposure. Low intensity exposure is exposure which does not raise the temperature of the living cells in the body. http://www.cyburban.com/~lplachta/safeweb2.htm

Although the public's principal health concern about mobile phone base station antennas appears to be the possibility of a cancer connection, other health-related issues come up periodically. However, various studies conducted around the world by leading organizations such as the World Health Organization, International Radiation Protection Association, International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection, British Medical Association have reported that evidence linking RF waves to adverse health effects including cancer are inconclusive.
http://www.maxis.com.my/maxis_health/health.asp

The consensus of the international scientific community is that the power from these mobile phone base station antennas is far too low to produce health risks as long as people are kept away from direct contact with the antennas. You have to know the difference between antennas and towers. It is the antennas that you need to keep your distance from and not the towers that hold the antennas. It is also important to be aware that there are many different designs of mobile phone base stations that vary widely in their power, their characteristics, and their potential for exposing people to RF energy.
http://www.mcw.edu/gcrc/cop/cell-phone-health-FAQ/toc.html

There are some reasons to be concerned about human healtheffects from the hand-held mobile (cellular) phones themselves. These concerns exist because the antennas of these phones deliver much of their RF energy to very small volumes of the user's body. Base station antennas do not create such "hot spots" (unless you are standing directly in front of one), so the potential safety issues concerning the phones have no real applicability to the base station antennas. http://www.mcw.edu/gcrc/cop/cell-phone-health-faq/toc.html

There are national and international safety guidelines for exposure of the public to the RF energy produced by mobile phone base station antennas. The most widely accepted standards are those developed by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and American National Standards Institute (ANSI/IEEE), the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP), and the National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements (NCRP).

Most research studies conducted to date have not shown that electromagnetic fields surrounding a cellular transmitter site cause cancer or other adverse health effects in the population. This agrees with current exposure standards in that the levels of exposure where people are located are found both by measurement and calculation to be well below allowable exposure standards.
http://www.bccdc.org/content.php?item=56

The 2005 report from the U.K. National Radiological Protection Board (NRPB) is a review of 26 reviews done by other countries and scientific groups. Overall the reports acknowledge that exposure to low level RF fields may cause a variety of subtle biological effects but the possibility of exposure causing adverse health effects remains unproven.
http://www.hpa.org.uk/radiation/publications/w_series_reports/2005/nrpb_w65.htm

In 2004, the Danish National Board of Health, the Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority of Finland, the Icelandic Radiation Protection Institute, the Norwegian Radiation Protection Authority and Swedish Radiation Protection Authority issued a joint statement on "Mobile Telephony and Health". The statement is on-line at: http://www.ssi.se/ickejoniserande_stralning/mobiltele/NordicMobilPress2004.pdf

"The Nordic authorities agree that there is no scientific evidence for any adverse health effects from mobile telecommunication systems, neither from the base stations nor from the handsets, below the basic restrictions and reference values recommended by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP). However, certain knowledge gaps exist that justifies more research in this field. There are a number of published reports suggesting that biological effects may occur at exposure levels below the ICNIRP guidelines. These studies need To be reproduced and the scientific progress in these fields of research should be followed carefully. In this context, however, it is important to note that biological effects do not necessarily imply health hazard."

However, the safety of cell phone towers is the subject of extensive scientific debate. The results of a pilot study indicate that effects of very low but long lasting exposures to emissions from mobile telephone base-stations on well-being and health cannot be ruled out. http://www.telecomlab.gr/2002/oct/rhodes/pap3rs/N%20044%20_p344%20-%20p352_.pdf

There is some discussion about other effects caused by RF radiation other than by thermal effect. However, no evidence is established yet. The scientific community and international bodies acknowledge that further research is needed to improve our understanding in some of these areas. At the moment, there are insufficient and inconclusive scientific findings to prove any adverse health effects caused by RF radiation.

In Pakistan, telecommunications towers should be installed in compliance with the stringent guidelines which should be set by the Pakistan Tele-communication Authority and the Ministry of Housing and Local Government, which conform to international standards and best safety practices. Besides this, towers should not be installed on the roof tops of the houses.

The writer is Senior Research Officer at Pakistan Medical Research Council (PMRC), Islamabad. She has 31 years of experience in Biomedical Research. She has 47 research papers to credit published in National and International Medical Journals besides reports on health surveys, workshops, and health briefs on national health issues.