Study of Public Perception about Health Hazards and Risks by Electromagnetic Emission from Cell Phones and Base Stations in India

Abstract

Telecom wireless communication is changing from slow to fast, voice to data centric changing technologies earlier we already have 2G, 3G, & now 4G & future is about 5G. With this tele-density is increasing & user’s demand of higher bandwidth has become need of the hour, whether it is transactions, education, social networking etc.
All this need network expansion to share the load to accommodate newer technologies. Hence need for more mobile towers, more micro sites, here comes the role of public perception how they look at these new technologies & hyped health hazards by media/ activists associated with EMF used in mobile communication.
If the perception is negative, there would be protest by public in installing near towers as well as removing existing ones. It is therefore vital to understand the gap between scientific assessment of emission from tower & phone instrument & public perception.
How this gap can be narrowed? What policy should be adopted by Govt.? Whether precautionary steps are helpful? Role of media are to be examined by way of primary data collected & secondary data taken DOT, TRAI, WHO etc.
With the help of primary data collected from the four largest states (area wise Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh(MP),Uttar Pradesh(UP), Maharashtra)with the help of 30 questions, this article seeks to explore the public perception about health hazards , Fischhoff