Recently, a telecom mast in a Lagos neighbourhood fell and killed a young university graduate and destroyed vehicles.The incident re-opened the raging controversy about masts – whether they should be sited in residential areas or not. In this report, Chinwe Egesi, presents all the contending sides to the controversy
In modern society, telecommunication has played a significant role in the development of many nations culturally, socially and especially economically. Similarly, telecom plays an important role in the world’s economy and the worldwide telecom industry’s revenue was estimated to be $3.85 trillion in 2008. The service revenue of the global telecommunication industry was estimated to be $1.7 trillion in 2008, and is expected to reach $2.7 trillion by 2013.
Telecommunication is the exchange of information over significant distances by electronic means such as cable, telegraph, telephone or broadcasting. Telecom masts and towers are, typically, tall structures designed to support antennas or aerials for telecommunications and broadcasting. Masts are among the tallest man-made structures, and the ideal height of a mast radiator depends on transmission frequency, demographics for the location, and terrain. Consequently, the height of the mast determines the radiation properties.
These radiation properties, nevertheless, have bearing consequences on human health, which has been accrued by the rise of the telecom industry. Since the deregulation of the sector in 2001, the hoisting of telecom masts in residential areas has continued to generate intense controversy, due essentially to the health implications to residents. Some scientists have said that the emission from the base station is dangerous. Also, the sound of the generating set, which works non-stop round-the-clock, is a source of noise pollution to the residents. The vibration of the equipment can make building structures collapse.
The National Environmental Standards Regulation and Enforcement Agency (NESREA) had, in time past, shut down base stations of some telecom operators for violating the nation’s environmental laws. But it seems that the agency has rested on its oars as most organisations have continued to erect masts within residential areas. These masts in the midst of humans have continued to wreak havoc, causing not only noise and air pollution to residents, but also falling on people and their property. Some have even lost their lives as a result of lack of proper maintenance of such masts. Just a fortnight ago, residents of Oke Arin, in Lagos Island, were in the early hours of a Sunday morning thrown into mourning when a 28-year-old Lagos State University (LASU) graduate, identified as Adewale Olorin, met a sudden death as a mast belonging to one of the new generation banks fell on him, and also damaged two buses parked nearby.
The tragic event which occurred around 11.05am at John Street, Oke-Arin, damaged 14 and 18-seater buses with registration numbers Ogun AA324AYE and Lagos AR688KJA belonging to Alhaji Kehinde Aka and Mr Taiwo Salami respectively.
LEADERSHIP Sunday reliably gathered that the deceased, who had gone to visit his mother, on his way back to his home at No. 54 Ofin Road, when the mast broke from its weak base and killed him.
Alhaji Aka, the owner of one of the damaged buses, said in an interview after the incident: “The problem resulted due to lack of maintenance. If they were checking it at least quarterly, such incident would have been averted. They should also find an alternative to masts, as the masts around are too high to be kept in residential areas. A similar incident happened with the masts of two banks here but fortunately there were no casualties.” he said.
He appealed to the bank to repair his damaged bus quickly enough as it was his means of livelihood.
The late Business Administration graduate from LASU left behind his 45- year-old mother, 24-year-old wife and two sons, one three years old and the other three months. The widow of the deceased, Mrs Karimat Olorin in an interview said: “All i want is for the bank to take care of my children and my mother in-law because my husband was the first born before the sad incident. He was a trader because he could not get a meaningful job after graduation,” she narrated.
Similarly, in April 2008, a mast located in Ikeja, Lagos, damaged four vehicles – two buses and two sedan cars – during a torrential rainfall. Sometime in 2004, a Nigerian professor, Bola Osijo, chairman of the Nigeria Nuclear Medical Council, had raised alarm about masts in residential areas. He warned that the erection of telecom masts in residential areas was capable of causing cancer and other chronic diseases. He had disclosed then that about 50,000 Nigerians were being infected with cancer yearly before the advent of the telecom masts, and reiterated that the influx of the masts into the telecom industry and their erection in residential areas had the propensity to increase the cases of the cancer diseases. She warned that should nothing be done to prevent indiscriminate siting of such masts, more Nigerians would be afflicted with the scourge. She had stressed then that research carried out by her committee had come up with findings that masts emitted radiation dangerous to human health and could easily result in cancer. She emphasised that that radiation from a source like the GSM masts affects human cells and, in the long run, result in cancer.
Lagos State Infrastructure Maintenance and Regulatory Agency (LASIMRA) was set up by the state government to check the indiscriminate setting up of telecom masts in the Lagos metropolis, which had not only dominated the Lagos skyline but damaged other infrastructure. The agency was set up to regulate the activities of telecom operators who in the name of Information Communication Technology (ICT) have continued not only to endanger the Lagos environment but the life of its inhabitants. In 2007, the chairman of LASIMRA, Engr Joe Igbokwe, at a press conference said that “the emission from these base stations posed health risk to over 20 million Lagosians, which was why the state resolved, through the agency, to check the unhealthy activities of these telecom providers.”
A consultant of medical physicist, Dr. Aweade, said there had been some instances of people dwelling close to transmitting stations complaining of health hazards.
“Some complain of pains, headaches and general weakness and anemia. Before now, those who argue that this radiation does not produce hazardous effect are saying so because of their ignorance. Now, what is known to be associated with this radiation is the heating effect, the ability to generate heat whenever they interact with biological tissues. Our research for the past few years, that is, five to six years has confirmed that this radiation produces more than heating effect. So, the ability to cause cancer is as a result of the radical that is generated, when someone is exposed to radiation.
“As for radiation coming from the mast, we have existing regulation. But people are not keeping to it. I think they need to be aware of that. Some telecom companies go from place to place erecting their masts and giving money to the landlords. The level of poverty in the country is one major reason this is common. The landlords are ignorant of the consequences of the radiation on them. Our people should be aware of this and resist the temptation to allow the telecom companies to erect masts close to their residential areas and areas where people stay for long. The government should enforce the existing regulations. It should be very strict in its enforcement.”
Ironically, while some Nigerians, including those in the remote parts, see the setting up of telecom masts on their property or in their villages as means of economic fortune; others the world over view its presence as a Greek gift and so promptly kick against it.
It has become a part of the environment to see tall masts in different locations around the country. It is also a fact that these masts carry microwave radiations that aid the flow of wired information. These masts, though helpful, have been proved to have negative health effects on people living near where they are erected. The erection of multiple masts clustered in built-up areas is thus hazardous Epidemiologic research revealed that, persons living in places where telecom masts are erected are vulnerable to disorders like cancer, lung diseases, sleep disturbances, blurred vision, concentration difficulties, headaches and even physical disabilities. Hence, we are no longer faced with the question of whether these EMF (Electro-magnetic Frequency) fields cause health problems or not.
What is uncertain is just how this ill-health will manifest in an individual; this is determined by the individual’s own constitution and health, and may manifest in many ways. Evidence abounds that the EMF ultimately leads to some form of illness and disease in humans. Children, in particular, with their developing immune systems coupled with sick people are more prone to the effects. A study indicated that there was an association between increased incidence of cancer and living close to a cell-phone transmitter station. Some scientists believe such a link exists, and studies in other European countries suggest a rise in cancer among people living close to masts. For instance, a study by the German Federal Agency for Radiation Protection by Eger, Hagen, Lucas, Vogel and Voit, examined whether people living within 400 metres of a mobile phone mast in Naila were more at risk of developing cancer than those who lived further away.
Studies on the sites showed high incidences of cancer, brain hemorrhage (bleeding) and high blood pressure within a radius of 400 yards of mobile phone masts. One of the studies, in Warwickshire, showed a cluster of 31 cancers around a single street. A quarter of the 30 staff at a special school within sight of the 90ft high mast had developed tumours since 2,000, while another quarter had suffered significant health problems. Dr John Walker, a scientist, with the help of local campaigners in Devon, Lincolnshire, Staffordshire and the West Midlands compiled some cluster studies on cancer incidences and from the result, was convinced they showed a potential link between the angle of the beam of radiation emitted from the masts’ antennae and illnesses discovered in local populations. Phone masts have provoked protests throughout Britain, with thousands of people objecting each week. Meanwhile, many people in Nigeria are not aware of the possibility that phone masts may have negative health implications, when erected near residential areas. Case histories of 1,000 patients were evaluated between 1994 and 2004 and newly diagnosed cancers were significantly higher among those who had lived for 10 years within 400 metres of the masts in operation since 1993, compared with those living further away. The patients had fallen ill on the average eight years earlier.
However, the Nigerian Communication Commission (NCC) at a telecoms parliament forum had allayed the fears of Nigerians when it disclosed that various researches conducted on the possibility of health hazards resulting from either the use of mobile phones or proximity to telecom installations and equipment, including base stations, masts and antenna, amongst others, do not pose any risk to human health.
Similarly, Ghanaian scientists say radio frequency (RF) radiation emitted by antennae on telecom towers are not harmful to human health. The scientists, drawn from the World Health Organisation (WHO), Ghana Atomic Energy Commission (GAEC), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the National Communication Authority (NCA), told journalists at a workshop that public anxiety about the health hazards of RF radiation from telecom antennae was unfounded. Also Dr. Vincent Ahove from the WHO said thousands of studies conducted by the WHO across the world had shown no link between human health and exposure to radio frequency radiation. He said that WHO had adopted the International Commission on Non-Ionising Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) guidelines for its operations in Ghana, and added that no telecom antennae or mobile phone in Ghana emitted radiation anywhere close to what ICNIRP allowed.
“This means it does not matter whether people live close to or far away from telecom masts, because as far as exposure to RF radiations from telecom antennae is concerned, there is no proven link between emission and health effects,” he said.
He further explained that emissions from telecom antennae were non-ionizing radiations, which did not have the capacity to destroy human DNA and, therefore, could not be hazardous to human health. #
In the same vein, Dr. Abbas Abdul-Salaam, a consultant radiotherapist and clinical oncologist at the University College Hospital (U.C.H), Ibadan, explained that there was no clear and straight forward evidence that mobile phone masts can cause ill health.
“Phone masts are usually at a very high height from the ground and most of the radiation goes upwards, not downwards. Even though this is of no serious scientific significance in terms of health problems, he said there are however several sources of background radiations from radioactive substances from the ground, the sun, etc, that people must be mindful of,” he said.
He encourged people to take precautions since its associated long-term implications are yet to be known.
“Cancer, for example, as a complication of radiation, is not something that occurs two to three years after exposure. It may take up to 20 to 30 years for it to be seen, and our exposure to the use of mobile phones throughout the world is less than 20 years; that is not enough to decide conclusively that there are no long-term effects if masts base stations transmitting surfaces are placed in the midst of people.
Nevertheless, whether or not the location of telecom masts have direct consequences to human health, it is important for caution to be taken by telecom operators in the areas where these masts are erected, so that they will continue to be service providers and not death traps for the innocent and, sometimes, ignorant citizenry.?