Dr Stephan Gift, a former Telecommunications Services of Trinidad and Tobago (TSTT) research and development manager and current Deputy Dean in the Faculty of Engineering of the University of the West Indies St Augustine Campus made the call during a public symposium hosted by UWI's Faculty of Medical Sciences on the topic: "Cell Tower Radiation: Is it safe?"

"We need to develop new standards for T&T based on examination or primary research. I suggest 0.1 megaTeslas with movement over time down to 0.001 megaTesla," Gift said.

The global accepted level is 0.1 megaTeslas established by the WHO.

"This should also protect against potentially adverse health effects arising from exposure to low-intensity levels of radio frequency, such as miscarriages, reduced sperm count, headaches, increased incidence of many types of cancer including brain tumours... (and a number of other biological effects)," he said according to a report in the Trinidad Express.

"Because of concerns about adverse health effects, all of these countries have set radiation emission standards significantly lower than that promoted by the WHO," Gift said.

The Express reported that other attendees invited to participate in the discussion included Peter Permell, the Association for Radio Frequency Emission Control in T&T vice president (ArFECTT); Dr Keith Clifford; Prof Phyllis Pitt-Miller Dean, Dean of UWI's Faculty of Medical Sciences, and Prof (Human Physiology) Jonas Addae, of UWI's Faculty of Medical Sciences however representatives from both Digicel and TSTT declined to attend the event.

The symposium turned up no conclusive evidence of adverse health impact from the current level of radiation.

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad, December 4, 2006 - A Trinidadian telecommunications engineer is calling on government to reduce the threshold of radio frequency fields (RFs) emanating from cell phone towers below that set by the World Health Organisation (WHO).  Cell phone towers are believed to emit low level radiation which can have an adverse impact on human health as a result of prolonged and consistent exposure.

Posted on Sunday, December 10 @ 08:23:11 UTC by admin