The High Court has sought expert opinion on whether it is logical to set the emission level of mobile phone towers to one tenth of the international standards, considering health and environmental impact.
The High Court formed a committee of seven members on Monday with former member of Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission, Kamruzzaman as convenor and director of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission BTRC, Golam Razzak as member secretary.
The committee has been asked to submit its report within four months.
The High Court bench comprising of Justice JBM Hasan and Justice Raziq Al Jalil passed the order on Monday.
Earlier, reports about the dangerous consequences of mobile tower radiation were released in a variety of media. A writ petition was later filed before the High Court in 2012 on behalf of Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh-HRPB, a human rights and environmental organization, adding that report.
In 2013, the expert committee provided a three-point recommendation report to the Ministry of Health after inspecting and monitoring the radiation of 18 towers owned by six mobile phone operators in the Dhaka neighborhoods of Motijheel, Gulshan, and Mirpur.
According to the report, excessive radiation was found in only one of these towers.
The BTRC has therefore created policies in light of the instructions provided by the court. As a result of a court ruling, the BTRC later modified its regulation multiple times. The lawsuit is still pending as a result of the High Court’s ruling, which was announced on April 25, 2019.
With 11-point instructions, the court requested confirmation of the potential for radiation before making a final determination. But before submitting the policy to the court, BTRC finalized it without first ensuring its viability.
The final policy of the BTRC did not alter radiation levels. As a result, on October 16 a request was submitted to the High Court to consult an expert. The application’s hearing was mandated by the court.
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