ISLAMABAD, Dec 1: National radiation safety standards and appropriate mechanisms to deal with environmental and aesthetic aspects of growing wireless communications infrastructure in the country are on the anvil.

The standards will be based on the guidelines adopted by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) of 1998. The introduction of standards has been prompted by the environmental and health concerns raised at the level of the federal cabinet, which had directed the Ministry of Information Technology to carry out a study.

The Ministry of Information Technology, in an advisory report, states that the proposed standards would satisfy all the cellular base stations deployed in the country. Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) will ensure the compliance of these guidelines by all cellular and Wireless Local Loop (WLL) operators in the country, official sources said.

The standards will cover introduction of national radiation safety guidelines, criteria for base stations, co-location and specific siting requirements for antennas, work practices for personnel working on these base stations and mechanism of enforcement of these guidelines.

Since the guidelines relating to radiations from electromagnetic fields of antennas have never been established, it is very much in order to define the national standards and guidelines in this respect along with other criteria and regulation mechanisms, the recommendations of the study say.

The ministry has proposed that the technical data, power density calculation and the results of possible measurements should be registered centrally with the PTA for efficient enforcement and ready access of the general public.

Following the German approach it would be made a legal requirement that each antenna installation be registered with the authorities and that this registration be accompanied by a ‘location certificate’ containing details about the installation to enable the general public to be aware of the characteristics of base station infrastructure in their particular area of interest.

Under the policy, antenna sites should be designed so that the public cannot access areas that exceed the ICNIRP guidelines of 1998 for public exposure which have been recommended as national guidelines for Pakistan. As a general rule, the uncontrolled (public) exposure guideline cannot be exceeded more than 8 metres (25 feet) from the radiating surface of the antenna.