The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) on Wednesday expressed worry over misconceptions and resistance by some communities regarding installation of Based Transceiver Stations (BTS).
Mr Adamu Amshi, the NCC’s Zonal Controller in Kano made this known at the consumers’ forum organised by NCC in Yola.
“One critical issue that is at the heart of improvement of quality of service is the pervasiveness of Base Transceiver BTS across the country.
“Yet its installation in communities is out rightly resisted by neighbourhood due to misconceptions and fears of harmful electromagnetic radiation emissions from these BTS,” Amshi said.
According to him, the World Health Organisation and International Commission for Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection and other relevant organisations have over the years carried out extensive researches on the alleged harmfulness.
He said that the outcome of the researches reports were published and had not attributed any casual link between emissions from telecom towers and terminal illness such as cancer and other body organ failures.
He said that the emissions from the BTS antennas were no more than the ones emitted by the television and radio sets found in almost every household in Nigeria.
Amshi announced that the commission conducts regular measurements of Electro-magnetic Force on BTS across the country.
He said that the results obtained from these measurements revealed that measured radiation levels were far below the permissible level set by the international commission for non ionizing radiation protection.
He said that the commission would continue to sensitise the general public about the issue.