Last year, Harish Chand Tiwari, who works at the residence of Prakash Sharma in the Dal Bazar area of Gwalior, moved the SC through advocate Nivedita Sharma, complaining that a BSNL tower illegally installed on a neighbour's rooftop in 2002 had exposed him to harmful radiation 24x7 for the last 14 years.
The order is likely to further fuel the debate over the effects of radiation from mobile phone towers+ with a section of activists feeling vindicated while the government argues there is no evidence to prove that the waves cause cancer.
Radiation from the BSNL tower, less than 50 metres from the house where he worked, afflicted him with Hodgkin's Lymphoma caused by continuous and prolonged exposure to radiation, Tiwari complained.
In a recent order, a bench of Justices Ranjan Gogoi and Navin Sinha said, "We direct that the particular mobile tower shall be deactivated by BSNL within seven days from today." The tower will be the first to be closed on an individual's petition alleging harmful radiation.
The SC, which began hearing the issue relating to radiation from cell towers from March 18 last year, had asked the parties to file additional documents to show that radiation from such towers were harmful to humans and animals+ .
Private petitioners have been predicting disastrous consequences in the future.
Activists have alleged that radiation from mushrooming mobile phone towers have caused sparrows, crows and bees to vanish.
But the Cellular Operators Association of India and the Union government have vehemently denied the allegations and said such fears were unfounded and that no scientific study had conclusively linked mobile phone tower radiation to cancer or vanishing of sparrows, crows and bees.
Comment: Studies conducted or funded by the tech industry always deny or downplay any negative effects of EMF, yet there is abundant evidence of harm from independent research:
The department of telecom (DoT) in its affidavit before the SC in October last year had said that of the over 12 lakh mobile phone towers in the country, it had tested 3.30 lakh towers.
It said only 212 towers were found exceeding radiation limits and they were fined Rs 10 lakh. It said so far Rs 10 crore was collected from different cellular operators as penalty.
DoT had relied upon a World Health Organisation (WHO) report as well as over 25,000 articles in the past 30 years to say that there was no confirmation of "any health consequences from exposure to low level electromagnetic fields".
In 2014, a parliamentary committee had recommended to the Union government to carry out a scientific study by a reputed government agency on impact of telecommunication and mobile phone towers and handsets on humans. Private petitioners had alleged that no such study had been undertaken.
But the DoT had informed the court that the Centre had constituted an expert committee to study the possible impact of electromagnetic field radiation
#1 : We don't build houses close to high voltage power line pillars. For a simple reason : If the pillar breaks, it will literally fall on your head and most likely there will be a fire so people will get hurt.
#2 : And this is the ISSUE IN QUESTION at this point. Around every electrical cable there's INDEED AN ELOGTROMAGNETIC FIELD
the force of which falls though EXPONENTIALLY , specifically with the square of the distance, from the cable. Baybars maybe can help us
at this point , I don't remember the equation. So even close to power lines the electromagnetic field is weak. EMF pulses don't necessarily need high power. To the best of my knowledge, and I saw that on T.V., cases were reported in which small children were
affected but because they lived in small houses under huge strong current power lines. Jesus, total mess...
That's all I know from personal experience and valid transfer knowledge and at this age I don't very much trust reports. They don't always portray reality with accuracy.
Personally I've been using cell phones and computers all my life and have spent due to the nature of my work hours close to high voltage power lines. All the issues I've ever had with my health were due to negligence, stupidity and personal ignorance not because some third party was at fault.