The High Court on Monday formed a seven-member committee of experts to submit a report to it within four months if the emitting level of radiation from mobile towers of six telecom companies causes health hazards and damage to the environment.
The committee has also been asked to report if the existing radiation from mobile towers is following the radiation emission standard and the guidelines set by the International Commission on Non-Ionising Radiation, popularly known, as ICNIRP.
The court formed the committee with former Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission member Mohammad Quamruzzaman as convener while the BTRC director for engineering and operations Md Golam Razzaque was made its member secretary.
The five other experts include the head of the department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, the head of the department of Applied Physics at Dhaka University, DU physical medicine department’s former chairman KS Rabbani, and BTRC’S engineering and operations division’s deputy director Dr. Shamsuzzoha and his senior assistant director Mohammad Kamrul Hasan.
The bench of justice JBM Hassan and justice Razik-Al-Jalil issued the directive after hearing an application filed by Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh with a proposal to form the committee.
The petitioner’s lawyer, Manzill Murshid, told the court that the committee should be formed as an earlier committee of experts recommended that the BTRC should be asked to take steps for reduction of emission radiation from mobile towers at the standard level set by the World Health Organization .
He referred to the Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission report, which said that radiation from mobile towers might affect human health.
But it cannot be interpreted unless extensive research work is conducted by skilled manpower and by modern and sophisticated equipment after inspecting the sites of mobile towers, BAEC mentioned in its report.
BTRC lawyer Reza-E Raquib supported the formation of a fresh committee to examine the ‘bad effect’ of mobile tower radiation on humans.
Raquib, however, said that the BTRC found permissible levels of radiation from mobile towers of the six mobile companies as per the standard and guidelines set by the ICNIRP.
Earlier on April 25, 2019 the High Court issued a 12-point directive including the imposition of a ban on the installation of mobile or telecommunication towers on the rooftops in residential areas, educational institutions, hospitals, jail premises, heritage sites, playgrounds and places of worship.
The court in the verdict also directed the BTRC to remove all existing mobile or telecommunication towers from the potentially high-risk areas of high density of population.
The bench of justice Syed Refaat Ahmed and justice Md Iqbal Kabir delivered the verdict that declared illegal the installation of mobile or telecommunication towers on the rooftops of residential buildings and offices by mobile six mobile operators.
The court delivered the verdict after hearing a public interest writ petition of Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh.
The verdict also directed the BTRC to limit exposure to radiation at the level prescribed by the international commission.
The court also directed the regulatory commission to explain to it any impediments and constraints on the availability, acquisition and installation of instrumentation for measurement of magnetic fields at certain frequencies and on various alternative routes that may be feasible.
The court directed the BTRC to submit to it a ‘feasibility report’ within four months.
On April 26, HRPB filed the writ petition as public interest litigation with the High Court seeking its directives following a media report on the detrimental effects by mobile towers installed on the roofs of residential buildings and offices.
Earlier, the health ministry’s committee of experts found excessive radiation from a mobile phone company’s tower.
The ministry had submitted its report in compliance with a directive the court had issued in October 2012.
The report prepared in 2013 recommended that the BTRC should bring radiation from the mobile phone towers under its regular monitoring.
It had also suggested framing guidelines by the BTRC to regulate radiation from mobile phone companies’ towers.
According to the report, the health ministry’s committee of experts examined radiation from 18 towers of six mobile phone companies at Motijheel, Gulshan and Mirpur in the capital.
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