Emissions from mobile towers 'harmless'

New Delhi, April 5: Allaying fears about mobile towers emitting radiation, Indian telecom service operators on Sunday said their safety norms were strict and the key infrastructure (telecom towers) was “harmless”. “India’s mobile emission safety norms are strict and radiation from telecom towers is not a cause for concern,” Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said in a statement here. Responding to the health concerns expressed by BJP MLA Ram Lal Sharma from Rajasthan, arising from towers’ radiation, the association said unwarranted concern over their side-effects may affect the government’s Digital India programme. “As fears of EMF (electro-magnetic fields) emission from towers in the people are misplaced, we have to collectively allay them (fears),” association director-general Rajan S. Mathews said in a letter to Sharma. Sharma claimed that in his Chomu assembly segment, 40 km from Jaipur, on March 24 that “people living within 100 metres of mobile towers were suffering from cancer”. Refuting the charge, Mathews said any unwarranted concern over installing telecom towers would impact the government’s Digital India dream of the prime minister. “The broadband proliferation will be driven by mobile technology which can be facilitated by adequate infrastructure, including mobile towers,” Mathews noted. (IANS)