The level of radiation emitted by mobile phone antennae in Malta is well below international and EU limits and poses minimal health risks, the authorities insist.
The Malta Communications Authority and the Health Ministry said the level of radiation waves from all monitored mobile phone antennas in Malta was found to be well below the maximum acceptable level of public exposure limits.
A British research scientist said last week that women, children and the elderly were at a higher health risk because they might be more sensitive to the radiation emitted by the antennae. Speaking during a meeting organised by the Kortin Residents’ Association, Barrie Tower said the effect of mobile phone antennae could be “frightening”.
The association is campaigning for two antennae to be moved away from their area and closer to the coast and claims residents have been suffering from their harmful effects.
The communications authority, which is responsible for investigating emissions, said it had received complaints from the Kortin residents and investigated them.
“The measured levels of radiation were well below the maximum public exposure limits established at law – the International Commission on Non-Ionising Radiation Protection, which is endorsed by the World Health Organisation and incorporated by the European Council,” a spokesman for the regulator said.
The reports were also made available to the Public Health Department, the spokesman added.
Similarly, a ministry spokesman pointed out that all the audits carried out by the communications authority established that the emissions levels “to which the public may be exposed have always been found to be very well below the acceptable exposure limits, which have a tenfold safety factor”.
On receiving a report, the authority investigated and reported the actual levels of radiation at the time of measurements while calculating the worse-case scenario of the signal level, the spokesman explained.
Both results were quoted as a percentage of the public exposure limits and all audited sites to date had been found to be well below the maximum acceptable public exposure limits, which is below five per cent of the acceptable limits, the spokesman added.
“Mobile phone antennae are not warfare but a technology that has been in use for a large number of years now and these technologies are all the time being improved to be even safer,” the spokesman noted.
Quoting WHO, the spokesman said there was no convincing scientific evidence that the weak signals from base stations and wireless networks caused adverse health effects.