Critical evaluation of EMF exposure policy: Ensuring safe mobile signals to the citizens

Abstract

India has the second largest number of mobile towers in the world next to China. Mobile tower density in urban India is very high comparing the rural India. In rural India for every 11.64 sq km one tower is working; whereas in urban India for every 1.48 sq KM, one mobile tower is working. In metros like Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore, the tower density is still higher since on an average for every 0.1 sq km, one mobile tower is working. With the induction of more mobile technologies like 3G and 4G mobile network in India by the operators and allowing of sharing of a tower by multiple operators, the power emitted from each mobile tower has increased by 5 to 10 times. Mobile tower radiation is a cause of concern across the globe since there is apprehension of mobile tower radiation causing health hazards. This paper studies the EMF exposure policy implementation of the state in containing the mobile radiation within the limit in General Public Accessible points and suggests improvement, including the radiation emission from 5G mobile technologies to be inducted into the Indian Mobile network in near future.