Challenges and Dichotomies of Misconceptions on Environmental Effects of Mobile Base Stations

Mobile phone base stations have become a common sight around cities and along highways. The extensive use of mobile devices has led to increased installations of base stations and high voltage overhead power lines. This has led to public environmental health concern and potential health effects of exposure to electromagnetic fields. The exponential growth in the use of mobile phone base stations has raised global concerns about the base stations and prompted researches on different aspects of environmental health issues of exposure to radiofrequency- electromagnetic ?elds (RF EMF) among others. This paper determined the challenges and dichotomies of misconceptions on environmental effects of Mobile Base Stations (MBS) in the country as well as possible solutions to enable proper laws and policies that will guide subsequent installations of MBS to avoid issues of environmental health. Available literature review and SWOT analysis targeting stakeholders showed that disparities and overlaps in government functions, laws and regulations concerning the telecommunications industry brought about controversies and misconceptions as regards the activities of the industry. The setback (m) of the MBS and NIR emission levels are some factors where these disparities occur. It should be noted that there are no specific standard and regulatory bodies or agencies dedicated for the regulation and management of mobile telecoms Health, Safety and Environmental (HSE) challenges in Nigeria. This appears to be the same in many parts of the world especially the less developed countries. This is largely due to the diverse and multi-disciplinary nature of the HSE related hazards or issues. In Nigeria, telecoms HSE related issues are generally handled by appropriate Ministries and/or their designated agencies/ departments. However, not one agency has come out with detailed telecoms-related occupational health and safety specific hazards or environmental aspects/management requirements or guidelines. It is recommended that all stakeholders in the sector should move towards reconciling these discrepancies, as this will go a long way in clearing the misconceptions