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Friday, January 28, 2011

ARE TELECOMMUNICATION COMPANIES GAMBLING WITH HUMAN LIFE?

By Bryan Tumwa
Students in Moi University Main Campus have been dragged straight into the raging debate on whether telecommunication masts are harmful to human beings. This follows the installation of a mast believed to belong to one of the leading cell phone companies, Safaricom, on top of one of hostel H. The timing of the installation was also suspicious as it was done right at the close of the previous semester.
However, the real issue here is the electromagnetic emissions and the unbearable buzzing noise that rings constantly throughout the day and at night. The question begs: why was the mast placed right on top of a students’ hall of residence with no thought whatsoever given to the health implications of the entire project?
What is even more shocking is a revelation in one campus publication that a senior administration official, in whose docket the renovations in hostels fall, claimed he was not privy to the installation.
At a time when debate is still raging on whether cell towers are safe to be within close proximity to human settlements, it should only be prudent that residential areas should be avoided when choosing their location.
Dr Bitange Ndemo, Kenya’s Information PS, has been quoted in the past saying that rapid growth of the telecommunications industry poses environmental and health concerns. According to Business Daily Africa, CCK has already signed an agreement with the Radiation Protection Board under the Ministry of Public Health to address the challenge while joint countrywide surveys are being carried out on Base Transmitter Stations and other communication infrastructure.
As Kenya waits for an official medical perspective, health professionals in various countries have ascertained that some people are sensitive to non- ionizing radiation which poses complicated health risks. In Europe, for example, many young people are developing cancer and the common denominator of their suffering, apart from the cancer itself, is the long-term exposure to phone masts. Other short-term mobile phone mast studies have also found significant health effects such as headaches, dizziness, depression, fatigue, sleep disorder, difficulty in concentration and cardiovascular problems.
In 2005, a study in the UK by the Environmental Health Perspectives disputed the claim that phone masts could be harmful to people who live close to them but stressed that people were nonetheless suffering real symptoms. The experiment funded by telecommunication companies and the UK government was however challenged by Campaign group, Mast Sanity, who said the results were skewed as 12 people in the trials dropped out because of illness.
For as long as the controversy over telecommunication masts lasts, only one thing is for sure, human life is at stake. The most immediate worry for hostel H residents is the noise that the mast generates causes students sleepless nights and an agonizing stay in their quarters. This is a case of something we all know is meant to benefit us in terms of the conveniences it offers, but the cost is too great to bear.
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(The writer is a third year Media Science student)
Telecommunication companies still insist that the masts are harmless but for the sake of people’s health and longevity, the industry should be careful not to make human beings guinea pigs in the quest to resolve the what ifs of the deadly microwave emitters.

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