No problem with mobile phone towers - expert

A World Health Organization expert recently ruled out claims that mobile phone communication towers posed health hazards, ending fear that the towers were endangering people’s health. The debate on the safety of the towers, particularly those erected in residential areas, ensued following assertions that they emitted violent rays, which were posing a major risk to thousands of people, especially in urban areas. “We have evaluated myriad research done all over the world-but so far we are of the view that mobile telephone towers do not pose any health risk” WHO scientist, Dr Emilie Van Deventer, said recently in Arusha during the first East Africa workshop on Electro Magnetic Fields Exposure and Health which was organized by the Tanzania Atomic Energy Commission and Mobile Manufacturers Forum. Dr Deventer is the head of Electro Magnetic Fields (EMF) Project under WHO. Recent surveys, shows that radio frequency (RF) exposures from tower base stations ranged from 0.002 to 2 percent of the levels of international exposures guidelines, depending on a variety of factors such as proximity to the antenna and the surrounding environment. Scientifically, this is lower compared to RF exposures from radio or television broadcast transmitters.

A mobile phone telephone tower in Kijitonyama in Dar es Salaam.

According to Dr. Deventer the RF exposures from radio and television broadcast transmitters was five times more than the mobile phone towers. Considering the very low exposure levels and research results collected to date, there is no convincing scientific evidence that the weak RF signals from base stations and wireless networks cause adverse health effects. With regard to cellular usage, WHO had undertaken a comprehensive laboratory research on animals, but it didn’t seem to have health effects. On human beings, the expert notes that, WHO has looked back 15 years since mobile phones hit the market in many parts of the world. In the short term, it doesn’t seem to have any health hazards.

A Vodacom tower in a residential area. Their presence has been discovered to have caused no any health hazards to human beings.

In a long-term, she said, the WHO had found no direct link between the usage of cellular phones and brain cancer when it was less than 15 years of using the mobile phone as it had been widely speculated. Beyond that, WHO does not know yet because the mobile technology is not old beyond that time, Dr. Deventer said, stressing that the technology transformation from analog to digital also complicated the issue even further. In a separate interview, the Mobile Manufacturers Forum Director for Europe, Middle East and Africa, Thomas Barmuller said that none of the recent reviews had concluded that exposure to the RF fields from mobile phones or their base stations caused any adverse health consequence.

A local garage that is operating near a mobile telephone tower in mikocheni in Dar es salaam.

However, according to the Director of Science and Technology, Prof. Evelyn Mbede he contradicted the WHO level of RF exposures from mobile phones base stations, saying in Tanzania the maximum RF exposure level stood at 0.05 percent of the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) values. Prof. Mbede quoted the survey conducted by the Tanzania Communications Regulatory Authority, the Tanzania Atomic Energy Commission, the University of Dar es Salaam and the Zanzibar broadcasting cooperation on the level of Radio frequency radiation. The preliminary findings showed that people living in the locality of mobile phones base stations were exposed to a maximum radiation dose of 0.05 percent of the ICNIRP values, Professor. Mbede said adding that since these telecommunications towers were installed in the absence of legislation and regulations, these findings call for more confirmatory studies using the state-of-the art frequency analyzer equipment. In Tanzania, the use of mobile phones had increased considerably in recent years and the devices had come to be seen as an essential means of communication in commerce and society. There are now over 9.3 million mobile phones in use in Tanzania supported by over 2000 base stations.