Environmental safety conditions for mobile base stations in Alexandria

The use of wireless communications devices e.g. cellular phones is increasing rapidly all over the world and in Egypt as well. This translates into a potentially significant public health problem: how far is the risk associated with these devices? Another risk is expected from the cellular towers or base stations, which transmit and receive these electromagnetic waves. Usually, these base stations should be constructed over residential buildings to cover all areas. Considering the increased public awareness about electromagnetic fields (EMF) exposure associated with these towers, this work aimed at investigation and evaluation of authorized environmental safety conditions for some mobile base stations in different districts of Alexandria city. The different mobile base stations were investigated for 12 standard safety specifications of the buildings' roofs on which mobile base stations are constructed. Although some of the standard specifications in the examined base stations were in compliance with standard specifications, some items were not in a safe condition. Only base stations F & G had complete safe conditions for all investigated items because of being erected on lighting towers of a sports stadium. On the other hand, base stations C, D, E, I, J, K, L1 & L2 needed a raise in the height of the antennas over buildings' roofs of 1-4.5 m. However, base stations C, D, H, K, L1 & L2 may pose a risk to near living population and consequently the towers have to be moved away. The violating distances are 3, 5.5, 3, 4.5, 4, 3 meters, respectively, while the environmental standard is 6 m. Therefore, the towers should be moved away from these populated areas Nevertheless, guided directions should be constructed in all base stations to warn close living population. Safety regulations as well as frequent inspection need to be applied, on both Egyptian mobile phone companies, to ensure the application of all standard specifications. A significant research effort is needed to assess the risk to human health of wireless communication devices.