BAGUIO CITY – The City Council approved on first reading a proposed ordinance requiring owners or operators of communication towers and base transceiver stations to secure a certificate or clearance from the City Health Services Office and other concerned government agencies on the safety against radiation of residents living within the vicinity of the said communication facilities, transmission lines and base stations prior to the issuance of the necessary business permit.
The ordinance authored by Councilor Leandro B. Yangot, Jr. stated for the purpose of the measure, communication towers, or base transceiver stations are structures, towers or platforms attached or mounted with communication facilities or antennae with a frequency range of 100khz to 300 GHz, including cellsites with a frequency range of 900mhz.
Under the provisions of the ordinance, owners of communication towers, power transmission lines and base transceiver stations found to have violated the provision of the ordinance shall be fined P5,000 and withholding of the issuance, revocation or non-renewal of city business or building permits as the case may be or 30 days imprisonment upon the discretion of the court.
Yangot cited recent studies have shown and confirmed that constant exposure to radiation emitted by communication towers and base transceiver stations may be harmful to public health; sickness related to exposure from radiation is marked by fatigue, nausea, vomiting, loss of teeth and hair, damage to blood tissues and significant decrease in red and white blood cells, which are indications of leukemia or cancer.
According to him, the city is now fast becoming a center for communication towers and base transceiver stations because of its strategic location vital to modern information communication technology.
Yangot pointed out the issuance of safety certificates by concerned government agencies to the owners of communication towers will help in reducing the opposition of concerned residents to the establishment of communication towers in strategic areas within populated areas in the city.
Oppositors to the put up of communication towers in residential areas have raised the issue of radiation as the primary reason why they are against the establishment of such towers in residential areas.
Earlier, officials of telecommunication companies argued that the radiation being emitted by their towers installed in residential areas are reportedly minimal and its effect on the health of the people is negligible.
Yangot emphasized the enactment of the proposed local legislative measure will help in making sure that the telecommunication towers being installed in residential areas will not actually compromise the health of the residents living around the towers that will be erected in their places.
The proposed ordinance was referred by the local legislative body to the concerned committee for study and recommendation.
By Dexter A. See