Thursday, March 28, 2024

After House passes bill on ICT infra in villages, PLDT-Smart unveils campaign on cell site safety

Local telco group PLDT and Smart Communications has lauded the passage last Dec. 2 of House Bill 10388, which requires subdivisions and housing development projects to allocate an area for cell sites, at the House of Representatives on its third and final reading.

The bill mandates all housing projects, subdivisions, villages or other residential areas, including socialized housing projects to allocate 30% of the gross area for open space for the establishment of ICT infrastructure and related amenities.

It is also provided under the legislation that the use of the area that has been identified and allotted by the local government and homeowners’ association for ICT infrastructure shall not be subject to any further consent from the homeowners’ association.

PLDT and Smart chief executive Al Panlilio said the approval of the measure will help ease the roadblocks that telecommunications companies experience in their rollout especially in subdivisions as many homeowners’ associations and communities still prohibit the construction of cell sites and other telecommunications infrastructure due to perceived health risks, aesthetic reasons, among others.

“PLDT and Smart, for our part, are embarking on an information and education campaign to address the health concerns of these homeowners’ associations. It is our hope that with these twin measures, we will gather support from homeowners’ associations and communities for our rollout of telecommunications towers and infrastructure in their subdivisions and communities,” Panlilio said.

He added: “We urge the Senate to likewise support this legislation as we continue to ramp up our efforts to provide connectivity throughout the country.”

At the same time, the telco said it is working with international and local experts to help educate customers about the safety of cell sites. 

“This campaign is aimed to gain support from communities for our accelerated nationwide network rollout for enhanced connectivity to serve more Filipinos with world-class customer experience and to fulfill our promise to always keep our customers as our North Star,” said Panlilio.

At the center of the campaign is a video explainer featuring interviews with experts to dispel common disinformation linking cell sites and radiofrequency waves with health issues.

Among those featured in the video is Ken Karipidis, assistant director at the assessment and advice section for the radiation health services branch of the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA).

“There are no proven long-term effects such as cancer from radio waves. In fact, there is no substantiated evidence of any health effects from radio waves at levels below the limits of the standard,” he said. 

Local experts from the government and private sector have also echoed his findings. 

Johanna Patricia Cañal, chief radiation oncologist at the Asian Hospital and Medical Center, emphasized that even the American Cancer Society has said that there is no association between radiofrequencies used by cell sites and cancer. 

“[Even] the American Cancer Society has said that there is no association between radiofrequency energy and the causation of cancer. They have not found any cases where one can be associated with the other. They have found no proof that one is associated with the other,” she said. 

Meanwhile, Maria Gladys Cabrera, division chief of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) under the Department of Health (DOH), emphasized that the government has measures in place to ensure safety of cell sites even before they are installed, including 5G antennas.

“The FDA would like to reassure the public that prior to the installation of the antennas, an evaluation is done to determine their safety. This is applicable to all our antenna installations, including 5G antennas,” she said.

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