MIRI: SACOFA Sdn Bhd, the ICT infrastructure company that has been tasked with delivering on the State’s ambitious telecommunications and broadband coverage targets, continued its series of public safety talks here yesterday, aimed at tackling the growing trend of public myths and misconceptions around telco. This latest public engagement exercise – the last planned for 2017 – took place at Auditorium, Sarawak State Library, Miri in collaboration with the Malaysian Nuclear Agency, and Miri City Council (MCC).
This public talk and safety seminar follows others that were successfully organised in collaboration with Sibu Municipal Council and Kuching City South Council (MBKS) on 27 April 2017 and 8 August 2017, respectively, with more planned for 2018. The overarching objective of the public engagement sessions is to share with the public what the authorities are doing in terms of testing, regulations and compliance to protect the public, while addressing the myths and misperceptions surrounding telco towers.
The sessions focus on Radio Frequency (RF) and Electromagnetic Field (EMF) public safety, highlighting recent test results conducted throughout Sarawak, proving that telco towers pose no threat to public health and safety through alleged harmful emissions and that emission levels comply with all State, national and international regulations and emissions standards. RF testing was conducted by the Malaysian Nuclear Agency between January 2017 and October at eight rural and urban sites (with two more scheduled for 2017) revealing that emissions in the immediate vicinity of the telco tower sites varied from as little as 0.01% to 0.26% of the maximum exposure limit levels set by the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) and are fully compliant with the standards set by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP).
The RF emission assessment/ audit for 2017 was conducted at Kuching (2 sites), Sibu (2 sites), Miri (2 sites) and Sarikei (2 sites). The final RF emission assessment/ audits in 2017 will be conducted in Bintulu (2 sites). In addition to the test findings and audits, the speakers at the Miri seminar – Mr Chee Lay Heng of CISSPR Sdn. Bhd. and Cik Roha Tukimin of the Malaysian Nuclear Agency – tackled some of the most prominent issues surrounding telco tower emissions, which included: an overview of wireless technologies, mobile telecommunications and how antennas and propagation (transmissions) work, human exposure, biological effects, non-ionizing radiation and public health concerns.
The talks were followed by an open-floor questions and answers session. Of the public engagement sessions series, Zaid Zaini, Managing Di rec tor of SACOFA, said: “Common misconceptions have emanated from diverse groups, ranging from the media, NGOs sections of the general public and even elected officials.
These talks provide an excellent opportunity for the experts to lay out the facts in robust terms, backed up by hard evidence, to ensure public concerns are met and misconceptions – which are sometimes motivated with questionable intentions – are tackled head on with research and testing.” The most recent round of testing shows that SACOFA’s towers are performing, on average, 790 times better than the International Commission on Non-Ionising Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) standards, which are set by the World Health Organisation and have been adopted as the mandatory standard set by the Ministry of Health Malaysia. Zaid continued: “Telco towers emit RF radiation, which is considered non-ionizing and operates at extremely low frequencies and is harmless to humans at the minimal levels at which SACOFA towers are built. To put that into context, that is the same kind of absolutely harmless emission given off by radios, lamps and televisions.”
