India: Mobieltjes een risico voor kinderen vanwege verhoogde kans op hersentumoren. Upd.

Oorspronkelijk geplaatst 8 dec. 2010
Update 10 dec. 2010 met een toegevoegd verslag uit The Times of India.

Hoogleraar Telecommunicatie Girish Kumar, verbonden aan het Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), te Bombay, waarschuwt in een rapport indringend voor het gebruik van mobiele telefonie door kinderen vanwege het verhoogde risico op hersentumoren.
Het rapport (30 pp.) pleit voor verlaging van de emissienormen en beperking van het algemene gebruik van mobiele telefonie tot 18 à 24 minuten per dag.
Ook fauna en flora hebben te lijden onder de straling en ook al beweren de providers dat er geen gezondheidseffecten zijn, het wordt tijd dat we ons bewust woorden van de ernstige gevaren van de straling van mobiele telefonie, zowel van mobieltjes als zendmasten, aldus prof. Kumar:

Bron: DNA India 7 dec. 2010

Cellphones may put your child at risk of brain tumor

Auteur: Mihika Basu

Absorption of electromagnetic radiation from a cell phone (frequency being GSM 900 MHz) penetrates the skull of an adult by 25%, that of a 10-year-old by 50% and a five-year-old by 75%, says a report on cell tower radiation which has been submitted by an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay, professor to the department of telecommunications (DOT).

“The younger the child, the deeper is the penetration due to the fact that their skulls are thinner and still developing. Hence, it’s critical that children under 16 use cell phones only for short essential calls as they have much bigger danger of getting a brain tumor,” said the 30-page report written by Girish Kumar, electrical engineering department, IIT, Bombay.

Stating that currently there are over 50 crore cell phone users and nearly 4.4 lakh cell phone towers to meet the communication demand in India, the report recommends tightening the radiation norms, which must be simultaneously cost-effective without causing inconvenience to the users.

“A person should not use a cell phone for more than 18 to 24 minutes daily. This information is not commonly known to the people in India, so millions use cell phones for over an hour per day without realising its associated health hazards,” states the report.

“In India, we have adopted very relaxed radiation norms of 4.7 W/m2 (watt per metre square) for GSM 900, whereas serious health effects have been noted at as low as 0.0001 W/m2. It’s not just human beings, cell tower radiation can also adversely effect birds, animals and the environment. Though cell operators continue to claim that there are no health issues, it’s time we realised the seriousness of the health hazards due to radiation from cell phones and cell towers,” said Kumar.

Voor het originele artikel zie:
www.dnaindia.com/health/report_cellphones-may-put-your-child-at-risk-of-brain-tumor_1477722 .

11 dec 2010: Toegevoegd verslag uit de Times of India van 7 dec. 2010:

Cell towers likely sources of radiation, disease: Report

MUMBAI: Cellphone operators have long denied their transmitting towers atop buildings or on highways have any adverse bearing on the health of humans or animals, despite several studies across the world concluding the contrary. Now a report for the Department of Telecommunication by a faculty of the Indian Institute of Technology, Powai, reinforces what scientists have long held—that areas around cellphone towers are high-radiation and consequently high-risk zones. Moreover, it recommends that India, which has very ''relaxed radiation norms'', must raise the safety bar.

Girish Kumar, professor, electrical engineering department of the Powai institute, who visited rooftops of several buildings and measured radiation on places with cell towers mounted, said: ''These towers transmit radiation 24x7, so people living nearby will receive 10,000 to 10,000,000 times stronger signal than required for mobile communication. In India, crores of people reside in these hig radiation zones.''

Kumar noted the cell phone industry was becoming ''another cigarette industry, which for long kept claiming smoking is not harmful. In fact, cellphone/tower radiation is worse than smoking as one cannot see it or smell it, and its effect on health is noted after a long period of exposure. Unfortunately, all of us are absorbing this slow poison unknowingly.''

For instance, Kumar visited the apartment of a lady detected with cancer a year after a cellphone tower was installed in the vicinity. A hand-held broadband radiation monitoring device, taken near the windows, detected radiation levels were around 0.007069 W/m2. India has adopted a radiation norm of 4.7 W/m2, but the study noted serious health effects at as low a level of 0.0001 W/m2. Though India adheres to the radiation density limit set by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP), Kumar observed Indians faced an added threat: radiation from multiple towers. ''One should know the actual radiation pattern (unfortunately not made public) to calculate exact radiation density at a point,'' he noted. One of the first steps he recommended was tightening radiation norms and reducing number of towers. Many countries in the world have adopted much stricter maximum radiation density values of 0.001 to 0.24 W/m2.

Voor het originele artikel zie:
timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/mumbai/Cell-towers-likely-sources-of-radiation-disease-Report/articleshow/7056686.cms .



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