Mobile tower radiation
HC asks BTRC to prepare guidelines
The High Court yesterday directed the Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission (BTRC) to formulate guidelines on the operation and setting up of mobile phone towers across the country to control radiation, which is harmful for public health. The HC benchcomprising Justice Syed Refaat Ahmed and Justice Md Salimcame up with the directive during the hearing on a writ petition filed over the matter.
The HC bench also asked the BTRC chairman to submit a compliance report within eight weeks. However, the HC bench granted the health ministry three months time to obtain separate assessment reports from the three international organisations about the public health risk from the radiation emitted from mobile phone towers, which were set up in different places of the country.
Talking to this correspondent, advocate Manzill Murshid, counsel for the petitioner, has said the health ministry has to obtain separate assessments from the World Health Organization (WHO), International Atomic Energy Agency and International Commission of Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection within three months.
On April 10, the health ministry informed the HC saying that it had communicated with the three international organisations for their assessment reports on the mobile tower radiation as per its earlier order. The ministry needed three months time to collect the reports from the organisations, according to the health ministrys petition.
Murshid said after granting three
months time to the health ministry, the HC asked the BTRC to comply with the suggestions made by the experts committee of the health ministry to reduce mobile tower radiation.
In a report, the health ministry hadon March 22informed the HC that it had been found that mobile towers emitted excessive radiation in Bangladesh. This is unsafe and harmful for public health, as well as the environment, as per the WHOs guidelines.
The report urged the HC to direct the BTRC to examine the base transceiver stations (BTSs) of mobile operators so that the radiation emitted from the towers can be reduced and kept under control in accordance with the WHO guidelines.
The report also suggested that the HC should direct the BTRC to regularly monitor the level of radiation from the BTSs across the country. The posts and telecommunications ministry and the BTRC should be told to formulate rules or guidelines for setting up BTSs.
In 2013, the experts committee prepared the report after examining radiation from some mobile towers in Dhaka city.
Following the writ petition filed by Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh (HRPB), the HC, in October 2012, ordered the government to examine, by forming an expert committee, the radiation emitted from mobile phone towers, its impact on health and the environment, and submit a report.
The court also issued a rule upon the officials concerned of the government to explain why they should not be directed to stop radiation from the cell-phone towers.
The HC also asked the chairman of the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission (BAEC) to examine the level of radiation after visiting some mobile phone towers and submit a report within four weeks. Manzill Murshid, the president of HRPB, appeared for the petitioner during yesterdays proceedings.
