Tuesday, June 19, 2012

NATCOMS calls for consultation over telecoms emission bill


NATCOMS calls for consultation over telecoms emission bill

Tuesday 12 June 2012 | 12:19 CET | News
The National Association of Telecommunications Subscribers has urged Parliament to embark on nationwide consultation and conduct a public hearing before passing into law the Telecommunications Electromagnetic Frequency Emission Protection Bill, the Punch reported. The Bill has recently gone through its second reading in the lower legislative chamber. It seeks to declare that electromagnetic frequency emissions from telecommunications base stations are harmful to humans.

There has been a public outcry that telecommunications base stations scattered everywhere in the country have serious health implications for people living close to them. 

Industry stakeholders said this has no basis in fact. The Association of Licensed Telecommunications Operators in Nigeria (ALTON) has explained to the public that no study by any international body including the World Health Organisation backs the theory that base stations are harmful to human health.

While acknowledging the fact that the lawmakers were to make laws for the overall benefit of the people, NATCOMS president Deolu Ogunbanjo said they were expected to do so with lot decorum, due diligence and due process in accordance with international best practices.

He said Nigeria could not operate in isolation but within the comity of nations that had embraced the Global System for Mobile Communications. Ogunbanjo advised the lawmakers to engage health organisations, commissions, agencies and the public in wide consultations in order extensively to lay out the facts concerning emissions.

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