Hazard Calling

DELHI, India, May 23 -- By: Nabeela Khan Inayati
Sudha Ruia is almost in tears when she talks about the mobile tower that was erected on her house. “The tower resides almost above my head as it is just above my bedroom”. For three years now she has suffered from severe headaches. She says she has been suffering from diabetes and high blood pressure since the tower was installed. Sudha, 42, wants to get rid of the tower as soon as possible and at any cost. She has filed a complaint on E-consumer Complaint Forum but no one is ready to help her. Her husband, the main income earner has been ill for the past four years. Her house is their ancestral property. She thus allowed the mobile company to fix a tower above their house so that they could earn a regular income but were unaware of the fact that it is harmful.
“These mobile company people never told us that it is detrimental to one’s health in any way” she says. As her husband was ill, she went to Mumbai for his treatment for a month and it was during this time that they installed a tower on her terrace. “I am ready to pay any amount of compensation but please help me remove this tower which has become a slow poison for our family”. A study by Karan. J. Roger tells about the health risk of electromagnetic radiation from mobile towers. The study tells low levels of th is radiation can damage cell tissues and DNA, cause brain tumors, cancer, suppress immune function, depression, miscarriage, Alzheimer’s disease and numerous other ailments. Children are more prone to such diseases and so are elderly and pregnant women.
There are other caught similar situations as Sudha Mr. Kwatra and Mr. Bhradwaaj from model town in New Delhi have installed mobile towers in their homes. Ravindra Singh Kohli president of model town committee said “my mom and many other women in locality have been suffering from headaches and migraines since a long time. Because his complaints to the authorities have not received any response he has decide to file a case. According to a report by Hindustan Times, February 2001, more than fifteen house wives living in Sher-e-Punjab colony , Mumbai have been suffering from various forms of cancer. Neha Kumar who has been studying the biological effects o f mobile tower points out that none of the women have a family history of cancer but many cases of cancer have been reported since the installation of mobile towers in that area.
However, Poonam Madan , an accountant from South Delhi complains that there are two towers adjacent to her house. “It has been a year that all the plants on our terrace have dried and no birds can be seen nearby” she said. She herself suffers from headaches and indigestion and is worried about her three year old daughter.
A recent study conducted in Kerala by an environmentalist doctor Sainu Been Pattazhy found that radiation from mobile towers threatened the very existence of not only bees but also sparrows. The study said that electromagnetic radiations make honey bees lose their orientation. Unable to reach home they die as they are only able to survive in their social hierarchy. Study by Mukta Kapdi, a researcher from association of physics, India said, “recently a phenomenon called ringtone anxiety was described by psychiatrist in which user imagine their phone to be ringing or feel it vibrating when it actually is not. Traits are underway to examine effects of mobile phones on sleep disorders, memory impairment and other psychiatric conditions”.
Another study by Professor Neha Kumar and Professor Girish Kumar IIT Bombay said, that “when a human body is exposed to electromagnetic radiation, it absorbs radiation because human body contains 70% liquid. It is similar to that of cooking in microwave oven”.