Mobile phone towers under MoEF scanner

CHENNAI: Following reports about the death of flocks of birds in Odisha, which reportedly fell dead from the sky, the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MoEF) has commissioned a study to ascertain the effect of cell phone tower radiation on avian populations, Union Minister for Environment and Forests Jayanthi Natarajan said here on Friday. Speaking on the sidelines of the inauguration of an eco-innovation conference by the Loyola Institute of Business Administration, she said mobile tower radiation was an issue of some urgency which was “in the radar” of the MoEF. “There is already a study which says that it affects bees very badly. I commissioned this study day before yesterday. We are now worried that it (mobile tower radiation) will have a particular wavelength and very relative effect upon avian population,” she said, adding that the study is expected to be completed in three months. In this regard, she said she was planning to write to the Ministry of Telecommunications on the need to monitor mobile tower radiation. “My Ministry is doing the study but the Department of Telecommunications needs to have a task force or department or staff, which will monitor radiation from the towers.This is a very important health and environment consideration. I will write to the Minister and ask him to do that,” she said. On a question about the London Olympics, the Minister came down heavily on Dow Chemicals and said, “Somebody who is responsible for such a tremendous environment disaster (Bhopal gas tragedy) in this country should not be sponsoring the Olympics.” Earlier, speaking at the inauguration, Natarajan said that instead of the existing framework where authorities keep constant vigil on corporates to ensure adherence to law, the Ministry was looking at ushering in a self-regulatory mechanism. “They should regulate themselves and put out information on issues such as effluents treatment on their websites. If anyone has issues with the data, they must be able to take it up with the authorities concerned,” the Minister said. However, she said that penalty for violations was as low as Rs 1 lakh. She also said that 24-hour monitoring of emissions in all types of industries was preferable and would soon be done in tandem with State Pollution Control Boards.