Using cellphone not unsafe: DMA

Medical body dismisses 'hysteria' over cancer from mobile towers

Doctors in the city from a wide range of disciplines and under the banner of Delhi Medical Association on Friday rubbished fears of harmful effects and health hazards from emission and radiation from mobile towers and cellphones.

According to them, there are no empirical findings to establish that mobile tower radiation causes cancer or any such diseases.

They cited a June 2011 fact sheet by the World Health Organisation and claimed that there is no convincing scientific evidence that weak radio frequency signals from base stations and wireless networks can cause adverse health effects.

Dr Anil Agarwal, DMA president, said radiation emitted is too weak to be harmful.

“Since there is a lot of ambiguity prevailing among the masses regarding the harmful effects of radiation, we as members of DMA thought it is the right time for us to share the scientific facts behind this technology in order to remove the unwanted fear of ill effects of mobile radiation,” he said.

Agarwal said television remote controls also emit certain amount of radiation, and the situation is similar in most electrical appliances. But radiation is low and not harmful.

“Radiation from mobile towers has been found safe internationally, and if the Indian government’s prescribed levels of radiation limits are observed, then the fear of health hazards from radiation of mobile towers is merely hysteria,” he added.

The DMA said a microwave oven at home emits more radiation than a telecom tower. It said India’s current radiation exposure limit for mobile towers is much lesser than countries as the US, Canada and Japan.

It dismissed fears of mobile phone radiation saying, “Cellphone photons do not have enough energy to cause mutation in your DNA”.

“AIIMS and Indian Medical Association buildings have cellphone towers, which clearly proves that the medical community trusts the WHO prescribed emission levels as clearly not harmful,” said Dr Prem Aggarwal, interventional cardiologist.