The government on Friday said that the radiation norms for telecom towers (Base Transmitting Station) has come down to one-tenth of the existing limits prescribed by International Commission on Non Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP).

“All new BTS sites start radiating only after self-certificate is submitted to relevant TERM Cells. The TERM Cell tests up to 10% of BTS sites randomly at its discretion Additionally, the BTS sites against which there public complaints are also tested by TERM Cell”, Milind Deora, Minister of State for C&IT told the Parliament on Friday.

Self-certification regarding compliance of radiation norms is submitted by the Telecom Service Providers to respective Telecom Enforcement Resource & Monitoring (TERM) Cells of Department of Telecommunications (DOT).

If a site fails to meet the prescribed radiation, there is a provision of levying a penalty of Rs. 5 lakh per BTS per service provider.

In respect of mobile handsets the following directions have been issued by DoT regarding Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) values:

SAR level for mobile handsets is limited to 1.6 Watt/Kg, average over a mass of 1 gram of human tissue.

All the new design of mobile handsets shall comply with the SAR value of 1.6 Watt/Kg averaged over a mass of 1 gram tissue with effect from 1st September, 2012.

However, the mobile handsets with existing designs, which are compliant with 2.0 WattKg averaged over a mass of 10 gram tissue, may continue to co-exist upto 31st August 2013.

From 1st September 2013, only the mobile handsets with revised SAR value of 1.6 Watt/Kg are permitted to be manufactured or imported in India for domestic market.