Environmental Protection Ministry installed new system for monitoring radiation from cellular antennas a year ago; despite findings, ministry has no intention, or authority, to penalize the offending cellular companies.
By Amitai Ziv
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* Published 10:41 30.08.11
* Latest update 10:41 30.08.11
State: 8% of cellular antennas exceeded radiation ceilings
Environmental Protection Ministry installed new system for monitoring radiation from cellular antennas a year ago; despite findings, ministry has no intention, or authority, to penalize the offending cellular companies.
By Amitai Ziv
About 8% of all Israeli cellular antenna sites exceeded the allowed radiation levels in the past year. The Environmental Protection Ministry presented a report for the World Health Organization stating that some 2,000 sectors of the 25,000 the ministry monitors showed excessive levels of radiation.
A year ago the Environmental Protection Ministry installed a new system for monitoring radiation from cellular antennas. The system, developed by Israeli startup WaveGuard, allows continuous monitoring of all third-generation cellular antenna sites in Israel. The system tracks the results to a fraction of a second. The new system replaced the previous method in which the ministry checked the radiation transmitted by every antenna only once a year.
The report was prepared by Dr. Stelian Gelberg, the head of radiation safety in the ministry. “Violations were found in the operations of all three companies that employ third-generation [technology] in Israel. About 8% of the sites violated their specific licenses for at least a second in the first four months of measurement,” said Gelberg.
In addition, Gelberg reported on antenna sites operating without proper approval, which the system is also capable of identifying. “The system identified almost 20 sites that are operating without a valid permit,” wrote Gelberg. The ministry said the cellular companies significantly reduced the number of infractions after being presented with the data.
Despite the findings, the ministry has no intention, or authority, to penalize the offending cellular companies, either for excessive radiation or for constructing antenna sites without a permit. But the ministry does want to change its policy on excessive radiation levels and increase enforcement, up to and including criminal investigations of the matter. “At this stage the law does not allow levying fines,” said the ministry.
The ministry said it is acting to change the law and its own enforcement policies, as directed by Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan. It says it will revoke antenna permits in cases of violations and even take criminal action and levy fines.
The ministry intends to expand the monitoring system to include not just third-generation sites but also older technology, says Gelberg. In addition, it wants to make the information on violations available to citizens on the ministry’s website.
Lior Naveh, one of the founders of WaveGuard, said there is a problem of enforcement in Israel. Altogether there are some 50,000 cellular antenna sectors and the previous method of monitoring was woefully inadequate, he said. The ministry is WaveGuard’s first major customer.
http://english.themarker.com/state-8-of-cellular-antennas-exceeded-radiation-ceilings-1.381489