Kochi, India, 15 December 2014
Welcome Remarks
Mr. Ram Narain, DDG (International Relations), Department of Telecommunications
Mr. Anil Kumar Bhargava, Member (Technology), Telecom Commission, India
Mr. R K Arnold, Member, Telecommunication Regulatory Authority
Mr. Malcolm Johnson, Director, Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, ITU
Ladies and gentlemen, colleagues and friends
Good afternoon and welcome to this ‘ITU Forum on Human Exposure to Electromagnetic Fields in India’.
I would like to begin once again by thanking our hosts and co-organizers, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology of India.
I am aware that our topic of discussion today is of particular concern to India, in light of the tremendous pace at which the country’s ICT networks are expanding.
Addressing public concern about human exposure to the electromagnetic fields (EMFs) emitted by wireless communications infrastructure is essential in building confidence in the use of ICT.
The World Health Organization has pointed out, there are possible health risks associated with electromagnetic fields if the electromagnetic radiations are beyond certain limits.
That this event is being held at the invitation of the government of India is a clear indication of Indian regulators’ resolve to ensure that the growth of the country’s ICT industry follows a responsible trajectory, posing no risks to public health.
A number of regulations and standards specify the factors to be considered when deploying a base station, such as the proximity of base stations to local communities and the means of measuring the specific absorption rate of EMFs emitted by mobile phone.
National regulators and network operators have the tools at their disposal to ensure public safety as ICT networks expand, and this must be communicated to citizens to increase the transparency of regulators and operators’ actions.
Citizens in many countries, not properly informed of their countries’ adherence to international regulations and standards, are prone to distrust and resist the establishment of mobile base stations in their neighbourhood.
ITU has been mandated to address concerns around EMF by Plenipotentiary Conference Resolution 176, World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly Resolution 72, and World Telecommunication Development Conference Resolution 62.
Resolution 72 calls on ITU’s Standardization Sector (ITU-T), in particular ITU-T Study Group 5, to expand and continue its work in this area, with a key part of this mandate calling for events such as this one to raise awareness of the mechanisms available for the responsible management of human exposure to EMF.
A key product of ITU-T Study Group 5’s is the ‘EMF Estimator’ software, which calculates the cumulative radiofrequency exposure levels in the vicinity of transmitting antennas. EMF Estimator also contains the library of the radiation patterns of transmitting antennas for a wide range of radiocommunication and broadcast services.
Other ITU-T Recommendations provide guidance for compliance with safety limits for human exposure to EMF as it relates to telecommunications installations, mobile handsets and other consumer devices emitting electromagnetic radiation.
In addition, ITU provides mechanisms to increase the transparency of communications with citizens on the subject of EMF. Recommendation ITU-T K.83, for example, offers guidance on making long-term measurements in the monitoring of EMF with the end-purpose of providing the general public with accessible data on EMF levels. Many countries are now using this standard to display on a portal EMF levels mapped onto the country and compared with the international safe limits. The reference to ITU and WHO gives citizens a high degree of confidence in the presentation and helps to allay fears.
I am pleased to report that today we are launching a new product in this area, a mobile application providing an ‘EMF Guide’. The app provides information on EMF in a language understandable to all. It offers an introduction to EMFs and their relationship with health, as well as the various internationally agreed guidelines and standards designed to ensure safety in the use of mobile phones and other wireless technologies.
I encourage you all to promote this app, as I believe it has great potential to educate the public on EMF and thereby demystify an area that is not well understood, and on which there is often misinformation promulgated.
We have excellent speaker line-up for today’s forum, I would like to thank them and the moderators, and as with all of our events, at the end of the day we invite you to identify some actions that ITU, in collaboration with other relevant organizations, could take to improve our work in this area.
Thank you. I wish you a most productive forum, and I look forward to receiving the feedback from this event.
