Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission has started measuring the level of radiation emitted from base transceiver stations of mobile phone operators on trial basis with its newly imported devices.
The commission has so far checked radiation level in a couple of places in Dhaka last week, a senior BTRC official told New Age on Sunday.
The commission would check radiation level based on complaints as the BTRC officials are now ready to operate the equipment, he said.
As the guidelines on limiting radiation from BTSs of mobile phone operators are yet to be finalised eight months after drafting, the telecom regulator is following standards set by the International Telecommunication Union, World Health Organisation and International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection in measuring the level of radiation.
Until the guidelines are finalised, the commission would continue to follow the standards set by ITU, WHO and ICNIRP in determining whether the mobile phone operators or any other organisations are emitting any sort of harmful radiation or not, the BTRC official said.
The commission would take measures as per the existing rules and regulations if any sort of harmful radiation is detected in the frequencies of the mobile phone operators or any other organisations, he said.
He said that the newly installed radiation measurement tools were capable to detect the bandwidth which was responsible for harmful or high radiation emission.
In a particular area, different types of spectrum bands might be responsible for creating radiation and the BTRC’s equipment would suggest which bandwidth is responsible for creating high or harmful radiation, the official added.
The mobile phone operators, however, have claimed that the frequencies used by the operators do not create any radiation harmful to human health.
BTRC initiated the move to measure radiation of the radio frequencies following an instruction from the High Court in March, 2017.
Following a petition filed by Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh, HC asked the telecom regulator to take preventive measures if any harmful radiation from the mobile towers was found.
BTRC was also asked to formulate guidelines on the use of towers by mobile phone companies.
As part of its move to check whether there is any harmful radiation by the mobile phone towers, it completed procurement of radiation measurement tools last month.
BTRC procured two radiation measurement tools along with two monitoring vehicles for around Tk 2.92 crore.
Source: http://www.newagebd.net/article/55095/btrc-starts-gauging-radiation-level-on-trial-basis