The Ministry of Communications and IT is planning to find out the level of electromagnetic frequency (EMF) radiation the towers and handsets emit so that stricter regulations can be framed to control operators and handset manufacturers.

It was taken into consideration that the situation in India is different from that in the West. Therefore things need to be looked at from a different perspective. Compared to the 3-5 operators in European countries, India has 15.

India has around 4.5-lakh towers and the number is growing still to meet the demand of about 65-crore mobile subscribers, which has a steady growth of 1.5-crore every month, the highest globally.

The USA and European nations have laid very strict monitoring guidelines for both mobile towers and phones, which still needs to be done in India.

According to experts, 20-minutes of continuous contact between the human ear and mobile phone bring up the temperature of the blood flowing through a user's brain, which is extremely dangerous.

The high levels of radiation from towers can affect the people living nearby.

So far no radiation exposure standards have been set, and there is an urgency to set up an appropriate standard.