Prof. Girish Kumar of Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay

Cell phone technology has grown rapidly in India, and currently there are more than 100 crore cell phone subscribers and nearly 6 lakh cell phone towers. People use cell phones for hours without realizing its health hazards. Interphone study report in May 2010 mentioned that excessive users of mobile phones (i.e., 1/2 hour/day over 8 to 10 years) have doubled to quadrupled brain tumor risk. On May 31, 2011, WHO classified cell phones as possibly carcinogenic to humans (Class 2B). One can take following precautions for cell phones:

1. Limit the use of cell phones and talk for short duration
2. If possible, use SMS and/or Whatsapp
3. Use cell phone with lower SAR value
4. Can use speakerphone or wired hands free or Bluetooth, but keep cell phone at a distance of at least 30cm from your body
5. Use land-line phone when available
6. Do not keep cell phones in your hand/pocket for long.

From Sep. 1, 2012, India has adopted 1/10 of ICNIRP Guidelines, which implies safe power density of 450 mW/m2 for GSM900 and 920 mW/m2 for GSM1800 after Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) report came out in Jan. 2011, which mentioned several health hazards due to radiation. However, a large number of scientists prepared Bio-Initiative Report in 2007 and gave 2000 references and they proposed safe radiation density of 1.0 mW/m2 for outdoor, cumulative RF exposure and 0.1 mW/m2 for indoor, cumulative RF exposure. Again, 29 scientists from 10 countries prepared Bio-Initiative Report 2012 and gave additional references of 1800 scientific/technical papers. The most common complaints are: sleep disorder, headache, irritability, concentration problems, memory loss, depression, hearing loss, joint problems, etc. More severe reactions include seizures, paralysis, miscarriage, irreversible infertility, and cancer. Children and pregnant ladies are more vulnerable.

Expert Group formed by Environment Ministry, India submitted their report in Oct. 2011 on “Impacts of communication towers on Wildlife including Birds and Bees”. They gave 919 scientific/technical references and mentioned that 593 papers reported adverse effect, 130 papers reported no effect, and 196 papers reported inconclusive/neutral effect. Thus, apart from humans, cell tower radiations also affect birds, animals, plants, and environment. Yield of fruit bearing trees near the cell towers and in the main beam is going down significantly.

Cell phone industry may not admit that there are harmful effects just like cigarette industry. People of India must unite to convince policy makers to adopt stricter radiation norm of less than 1 milliWatt/m2 for 24x7 exposure.

Biography:

Prof. Girish Kumar received the Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur (IIT-Kanpur), Kanpur, India, in 1983. From 1983 to 1985, he was a Research Associate with the Electrical Engineering Department, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada.

From 1985 to 1991, he was an Assistant Professor with the Electrical Engineering Department, University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, ND, USA. He is also a Chairman of Wilcom Technologies Pvt. Ltd., IIT Bombay, Mumbai, India.

Since 1991, he is with Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT-Bombay), Mumbai, India, where he is currently a Professor in the Electrical Engineering Department. He has been working on hazards of microwave radiation for the last one decade. He has authored more than 200 papers in the international and national journals and conference proceedings. He has also authored several reports and given presentations at various forums on the topic related to cell phone and tower radiation hazards and solutions.

He is an author of the book Broadband Microstrip Antennas (Artech House, 2003). His research interests include microstrip antennas and arrays, broadband antennas, microwave integrated circuits, and systems.

Email:

Address:Department of Electrical Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, Powai, , Mumbai, Maharashtra, India, 400 076