Expert raises alarm on GSM related cancer
By Sola Shittu,
Reporter, Ibadan
About 500,000 new
cases of cancer are reported for treatment in Nigerian hospitals even as
experts raised alarm on indiscriminate citing of GSM masts in residential
areas.
The National
Chairman of Radiation Protection Committee (RPC) in Nigeria, Professor Bola
Osifo, who disclosed this while addressing the press at the University College
Hospital (UCH), Ibadan, however, expressed confidence in the National
Communication Commission (NCC), the regulatory body on GSM.
She added that
there was no early diagnosis in 80 per cent of Nigerian cancer cases thus
making the situation more compounding for experts in the treatment of cancer.
“We have very
few cancer centres, some health workers don’t refer the cancer cases
early enough for diagnosis knowing fully well that the most important thing in
cancer diagnosis is early detection,” she said.
The Professor of
Nuclear Medicine cautioned GSM users to always minimise contact with the body
because of its micro radiation.
She pointed out
that frequent contact of any radiation, be it from the handset could cause
cancer even as she urged government to control the indiscriminate siting of GSM
masts in residential areas in the country.
Osifo expressed
gratitude that unlike in the past, government now has a regulatory body in
place to control the activities of GSM companies in the country.
“The siting
of GSM mast in residential areas in the country can be dangerous. Government
should try and minimise the problem of the people by exercising control on the
GSM companies. There are experts in this country that could do this,” she
said.
She said the
incidence of prostrate cancer is now on the increase among men warning that
they should find a way of keeping their handsets in bag like women to avoid
contact with their bodies.
