New Delhi: Mobile towers should not be installed over school nor in front of them to safeguard children from any ill effects of radiation, actress and activist Juhi Chawla said on Tuesday.
"Children's body is at developing stage. They are soft. You should neither install towers over school nor in front of them. It should be at some distance from school," Chawla said at an event organised by PHD Chamber of Commerce and Industry on mobile radiation.
Asked if the quantum of distance should be as mentioned by the Department of Telecom in its guidelines, she said "At the moment, we should atleast reach till there."
As per DoT guidelines, if a mobile tower has 1 antenna , it should be installed at minimum distance of 20 metres from a house, in case of 2 antennas minimum distance should be 35 metres, for 4 antennas it should be 45 metres and for 6 antennas the minimum distance should be 55 metres.
The guidelines say that there should be no building parallel to antenna and height of the antenna should be at least 5 metres above ground or roof top level. She claimed the industry has taken a stay from a Mumbai court on government's guidelines for installing mobile towers and hence they have not been implemented.
"Before release of these guidelines, we already had bulk of towers installed around in our city (Mumbai). We were not totally happy but we said that at least something is there. When a government was doing something, industry took a stay order," Chawla said. The Bollywood actress was joined by environmental health activist and scientist Devra Lee Davis, who has been on board of various international programs in the field of oncology.
Davis said claimed that there are studies that show the ill effects of radiation emanating from mobile phones. She added that though there is no conclusive evidence against mobile towers but the nature of radiation from them is same as that from mobile phones which can be hazardous.
"For the sake of caution, we should bring down radiation level from mobile towers. Effect of nuclear bomb in Japan on health of people was noticed after 40 years. Should we wait for any conclusive evidence to know about it harm for 40 years?" Davis said.
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