Mast Radiation Unharmful to Human Health–NCC

A Deputy Director in Nigeria Communication Commission (NCC), Mr Philips Eretan, says that the radiation from telecommunication mast has no harmful effect on human health.
Eretan said this during a consumer outreach programme on Thursday in Bauchi.
He said that the World health Organization(WHO) had confirmed the harmless effect of the mast.
“Some communities chase way service providers when they want to install their mast because of the belief that it endangers human health.
“The WHO has said that the radiation does not affect our health as such the more number of the masts installed, the more effective the services becomes,” he said.
Eretan urged communities to cooperate with service providers for efficient service delivery.
He said that the commission had employed strategies to ensure that consumers were adequately educated and informed on good and quality services.
However, the Nigerian Communications Commission, NCC, had, on various occasions, dismissed the fear that radiation from telecom masts could have negative health implications, insisting that no known study has proved so.
Meanwhile the National Environmental Standard, Regulatory and Enforcement Agency, NESREA, appears to be stoking fire on the debate. Director General of the agency, Dr Lawence Anukam, in a television interview recently, called for caution in sitting telecom masts around living areas, admitting that there have been conflicting reports about the level of radiation coming from telecom masts.

He cited a WHO report adopted in Rio in 1992 on e-waste. Although he noted that the report was not yet concluded, he however warned people to be cautious about exposure to telecom masts.

According to him, WHO, at the conference adopted precautionary principle against radiation from telecom masts, “which means that we should not wait for overwhelming evidence of science before we take action as regards our environment.”