Use mobiles on
speaker mode,
say IIT-B experts
Chittaranjan Tembhekar I TNN
Mumbai: Do not talk for more
than six minutes a day on your
cell phone to avoid radiation, TIT-
Bombay and telecom sector ex-
perts said on Friday. The options
are to put the phone on speaker
mode and hold it at least a foot
away from your body or use a
headset. They suggested putting
up a wire mesh or water curtains,
or growing plants to prevent radi-
ation from cell, TV or FM towers
in the vicinity of 500 metres to
one km. You can complain to the
authorities against the towers.
These facts were recently
brought to the fore by an inter-
ministerial committee of experts
formed by the ministry of com-
munications and information
technology to study hazards
posed by cell phones and towers.
Experts warned that many
anti-radiation chips in the mar-
ket are fake and said radiation
from cell phones and towers
posed serious health risks, in-
cluding loss of memory, lack of
concentration, disturbances in
your digestive system and sleep
disorders.
lIT-Bombay professor Girish
Kumar warned against cell
phone usage for more than six
minutes a day as handsets have a
specific absorption rate (capacity
to absorb radiation) of 1.6 watts
per kg and thus can absorb radi-
ation only for six minutes a day
and later can harm the body. "Af-
ter formally speaking on the cell
phone, one should switch to a Ian-
dline phone," he added, pointing
out that the brain had a high risk
of getting affected by radiation.
He said the antennas of re-
peaters near residential areas or
working stations should not give
a radiation frequency of more
than 0.1 watts. Similarly Kumar
said, the ideal wattage for cell
towers should be two watts in
densely populated urban areas.
"Shockingly, towers give off
radiation of up to 400 watts as
more carriers are fitted on the an-
tennas. A microwave is of 500-
watt capacity so imagine the ef-
fect towers can leave on your
body," he added. According to Ku-
mar, wi-fi, of not more than 100
Speak on your mobile
phone for not more
than 6 minutes a day,
hold it at least a foot
away from your body
or use a headset to
avoid radiation
mw, should also be switched off
when not in use.
Consumer activist Achintya
Mukherjee said telecom compa-
nies should connect base stations
and subsidiary stations with op-
tic fibre cables and create low ra-
diation wireless-like inbuilt solu-
tions to disseminate signals of
low wattage.
Anil Prakash, president,
Telecom Users Groups of India,
demanded that the government
should force telecom companies
to do a self-certification of towers
and experts must conduct ran-
dom tests. There should also be a
warning in a cell tower area that
no one should come within nine
metres of its periphery