The Minister of State for Communication and Information Technology, Shri Milind Deora today informed Lok Sabha in written reply to a question that World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended that ‘National authorities should adopt international standards to protect their citizens against adverse levels of RF transmission from mobile towers. WHO has referred to the International Exposure Guidelines developed by International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP).
Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has adopted the reference levels of Electromagnetic radiation for Mobile towers, prescribed by ICNIRP, and incorporated the requirement in Access Service Licenses vide amendment dated 4 November 2008, as given below:
| Frequency Range | E-Field Streng( Volt/Meter (V/m)) | H-Field Strength(Amp/Meter (A/m)) | Power Density Watt/Sq.Meter (W/Sq.m)) |
| 400MHz to 2000MHz | 1.375f ½ | 0.0037f ½ | f/200 |
| 2GHz to 300GHz | 61 | 0.16 | 10 |
(f is the frequency of operation in MHz)
In India, the cellular Global Services for Mobile Communication (GSM) services are being operated in 900 MHz and 1800 MHz frequency band. For 900 MHz band, Permissible Power Density is 4.6 W/Sqm, whereas for 1800 MHz band, Permissible Power Density is 9.2 W/Sqm.
Further, vide letter dated 8th April 2010, DoT has directed all Cellular Mobile Telephone Service (CMTS)/Unified Access Service (UAS) licensees for compliance of the reference limits/ levels prescribed by ICNIRP by way of self certification of their Base Transmitting Station (BTS) for meeting the Electro Magnetic Field (EMF) radiations norms.
Most of the countries are following the emission levels of mobile towers prescribed by ICNIRP. However, certain countries in the world have specified their own radiation level keeping in view the environmental and physiological factors. Some of them are given below:
| Name of the Country | Exposure limits for RF fields (1800 MHz band) |
| USA, Canada and Japan | 12 W/m2 |
| ICNIRP and EU recommendation 1998 Adopted in India | 9.2 W/m2 |
| Australia | 9 W/m2 |
| Belgium | 2.4 W/m2 |
| Italy, Israel | 1.0 W/m2 |
| Auckland, New Zealand | 0.5 W/m2 |
| Luxembourg | 0.45 W/m2 |
| China | 0.4 W/m2 |
| Russia (since 1970), Bulgaria | 0.2 W/m2 |
| Poland, Paris, Hungary | 0.1 W/m2 |
All the mobile operators in India are following the ICNIRP norms and submitting the self certification for each tower for compliance of radiation norms. All new BTS sites start radiating only after self certificate has been submitted to relevant Telecom Enforcement, Resource & Monitoring (TERM) Cells of DoT.
The TERM Cell tests up to 10% of new BTS sites randomly at its discretion. Additionally, the BTS sites against which there are public complaints, are also being tested by TERM Cell. If a site fails to meet the Electro Magnetic Radiation criterion, there is a provision of levy of a penalty of Rs. 5 lakh per BTS. Service providers must meet the criterion within one month of the report of TERM cell in such cases, after which the site is to be shut down. The self-certifications have been submitted by the telecom service providers for more than 6,50,400 BTSs certifying that the radiation levels are within the prescribed norms. TERM Cells have already started the testing of BTS radiation and so far more than 4100 BTSs have been checked and found to be radiating within the prescribed levels.
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SP/AT
(Release ID :74996)
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