A new perspective that is intended to reassure Nigerians about the health and environmental safety of telecoms masts littering residential areas in the country has been revealed.President of the Association of Telecommunications Company, (ATCON), Titi Omo-Ettu, an engineer gave the perspective of the healthy and environmental safety of telecoms masts at a forum in Lagos organised by E-Business Life magazine to address the persisting fears and worries of many about the healthy and environmental safety of telecoms masts. Omo-Ettu, while disclosing that a lot has been said about the healthy and environmental safety of telecoms masts, observed that the high level of engineering safety consideration adds credence to earlier statements about the healthy and environmental safety of telecoms masts. He disclosed that the construction of telecoms mast in residential areas are in full compliance with internationally-acceptable safety guidelines, stating that protection of the environment is a key consideration in engineering design. He said that the perimeter wire-fence at the base of the telecoms mast is a safety measure to ensure that people do not get nearer to the mast, adding that standing within three metres of the mast, one is not at risk. According him, the construction height specification of every mast had as its agenda the safety of the people that will live in the neighbourhood where the mast is sited saying that service technicians that work at transmitter do not have any health risk since the transmitter is switched off before work begins. Although he did not support the idea of telecoms mast littering residential areas, he assured that that would soon be a thing of the past stressing that there was no co-location agenda at the inception of the telecoms revolution in the country. He noted that once masts are linked to optic fiber cable as it is planned, they will disappear in the next ten years adding however that it would have be all fiber optic cable were it not for the cost. Omo-Ettu's view on the littering had previously been expressed by the National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (Nesrea). The NESREA had expressed reservation over what it called indiscriminate erection of telecommunications mast in various communities in the country. According to the director-general of the agency, Dr. Ngeri Benebo, 'The issue of location of masts has become a top priority for Nesrea because of the public outcry; we in the agency have decided that it should be a top issue to be discussed. In the past, what had been the topmost issue to the agency was industry effluent discharge which has contributed negatively to climate change and pollution of water bodies' She disclosed that telecommunications companies now conduct Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) before installing their masts adding that the agency had received complaints from some members of the public that such masts were within residential areas and urged the affected companies to take adequate measures to mitigate any negative impact. However, Omo-Ettu while highlighting further on the assurance that telecoms masts are safe, said that the authority concerning the health and environmental safety of telecoms masts still lies with the Nigerian Communications Commission,(NCC) the regulator of the industry. Former Executive vice chairman of the NCC, Engr Ernest Ndukwe had in a forum disclosed that telecoms mast had no health implications stating that without base stations and there is no communication. He added that 'Besides, some studies have shown that mainland Britain alone has over 40,000 towers while Nigeria currently has about 22,000 22,000. The difference shows in the quality of telecommunications services available in the two countries although Nigerian operators are still installing base stations in order to improve their service.' According to the NCC, the radiation emitted by a base station, which is feared to be harmful to human is far smaller than the radiation from a TV antenna. In another report of the NCC, which makes reference to the study conducted by Wireless Communications and Health, Ottawa, Canada, electromagnetic energy, which consists of waves of electric and magnetic energy that radiate through space, and travelling at the speed of light are found electromagnetic field. The main source of electromagnetic energy, according NCC is the sun, but man-made sources account for large amounts of the electromagnetic radiation in our day-to-day environment. Items such as hairdryers, electric ovens, fluorescent lights, microwave ovens, stereos, wireless phones and computers produce electromagnetic fields of varying intensities. Indeed, the worry over the health implications of telecoms mast was a follow-up of the outcry about mobile phone radiation and its health concerns. In fact it became an issue following the enormous increase in the use of wireless mobile telephony throughout the world when in 2005 there were more than 2 billion users worldwide. Mobile phones use electromagnetic radiation in the microwave range, and some unreliable medical source believe this may be harmful to human health. These concerns have induced a large body of research (both epidemiological and experimental, in non-human animals as well as in humans). Concerns about effects on health have also been raised regarding other digital wireless systems, such as data communication networks. This fear was later transferred to proliferation base stations, which the mobile phones require to function efficiently. But the World Health Organization,(WHO) based upon the consensus view of the scientific and medical communities, stated that health effects such as headaches or promotion of cancer are unlikely to be caused by cellular phones or their base stations. And in May 2011, the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer published a review of the evidence on health risks of EMF, and concluded that there was limited evidence that cellphone users might be at increased risk of glioma and acoustic neuroma, and that there was inadequate evidence of any other health risks posed by EMF. This "possibly carcinogenic" classification was often misinterpreted, meaning only "that there is very little scientific evidence as to the carcinogenicity of cell phone use". It has also done similar research on base station. According studies conducted by experts while low levels of radiofrequency power are usually considered to have negligible effects on health, national and local regulations restrict the design of base stations to limit exposure to electromagnetic fields. Studies also showed that there are technical measures to limit exposure, which include restricting the radio frequency power emitted by the station, elevating the antenna above ground level, changing the antenna pattern, and barriers to foot or road traffic while for typical base stations, significant electromagnetic energy is only emitted at the antenna, not along the length of the antenna tower. However, although experts said that base stations produce radio-frequency (RF) radiation in order to communicate, exposing people near them to RF radiation, the World Health Organization has said that "there is no convincing scientific evidence that the weak RF signals from base stations and wireless networks cause adverse health effects." The consensus of the scientific community is that the power from these mobile phone base station antennas is too low to produce health hazards as long as people are kept away from direct access to the antennas. So going by the engineering design caution and safety measures, the ATCON boss disclosed people are invariably protected. While welcoming participants to the forum, the Publisher E-Business Life Magazine, Mrs. Ufuoma Emuophedaro said that there is the need to sustain the growth of the telecoms industry as well as the economic impact it already has on the nation. According to her, if telecoms masts are essential for quality service delivery for the operators, then issues that vital for existence must be regularly addressed saying that that was why E-Business Life Communication Limited collaborated with the Consumer Affairs Bureau of the NCC to educate the public better on the reoccurring issues of telecoms mast health and environmental safety.
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