MTC advises Namibians on safe cellphone use

MTC, Namibia’s dominant cellphone operator, has released a list of safety measures to protect consumers from any possible health risks linked to cellphone usage.
The ‘defensive measures’ come in the wake of a World Health Organisation (WHO) study released in May, which categorised cellphone signals as a possible cause of cancer.

According to the MTC press statement, the WHO study concluded that ‘extensive use of cellphones near your head for many years could possibly result in two types of brain tumours’.MTC emphasised that the WHO has ‘acknowledged that more extensive research is needed to reach a full and conclusive finding’.According to MTC, ‘youth and pregnant women’ are advised to keep cellphone usage to a minimum and to restrict it ‘mainly to send text messages’.In addition, MTC suggests that users ‘avoid making long calls where coverage is deficient or poor because the power emitted by the cellphone when making calls where coverage is poor will be at maximum instead of minimum’.In line with the warning, Tim Ekandjo, the Chief Human Capital and Corporate Affairs Officer at MTC, explained that the better the coverage, the ‘lower the power emitted by the cell phone’. He said that for this reason, MTC is building more base stations to strengthen network coverage.MTC furthermore advised that ‘intensive use of cellphones – more than 30 minutes per day – is not recommended’. If users wish to use cellphones for longer than half an hour each day, MTC advises that they ‘make use of headsets when making voice calls … or alternatively use the loudspeaker function’.Another precautionary measure advised by MTC is that ‘people keep their cellphones at least one metre from their beds, and where possible use the same recommendation when seated at the office’.MTC’s press statement pointed out that although the WHO listed signals from cellphones as ‘possibly carcinogenic’, in the same category as lead, engine exhaust and chloroform, the findings are not supported everywhere. The International Association for the Wireless Telecommunications Industry (CTIA) ‘dismissed’ the WHO findings, MTC said.Moreover, MTC pointed out that WHO announcement on cellphones was ‘not based on the outcome of a new study, but was based on the outcome of a panel of 31 scientists and members of the International Agency for Research of Cancer (IARC), who reviewed a large pool of studies and literature’.Ekandjo cautioned the public not to panic ‘as these findings are not conclusive, hence the precautionary approach’, the MTC statement notes. MTC stated that the company is preparing to publish a list on the company’s websites, which will indicate the types of power levels different types of cellphones operate on, in order to assist consumers in making a decision when buying a cellphone.