Less radiation level from telecom towers starting today

The new guidelines for lowering the radiation levels emanating from telecom towers and handsets have come into effect from today. The guidelines seek to address public health concerns. The new guidelines stipulate reduction of radiation levels to 1/10^th of the present levels for the towers while the minimum distance of a tower from a residential building should be 35 meters. The mobile handsets would also require to reduce the Specific Absorption of the radiation 12.5 times.There are over seven lakh towers for mobile phones throughout the country of which 95 per cent of them are already compliant with the new emission norms.Non-compliance of these standards will result in a penalty of Rs 5 lakh per tower, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal said.Public health comes first. Technology must be embraced but it ultimately must be subject to public health," he said.