Lawsuit Against Spread of Illegal Installation of Mobile Phone Base Stations
Verdicts
On May 23 (Tuesday), the first case in Taiwan justice to sue Cunghwa Telecom (CHT) carrier was given in the Kaohsiung District Court, regarding to a charge of illegal installation of mobile phone base station (MPBS) site at the populated residential apartment building on October 4, 2011. The judge (民事第六庭法官王琁) announced her first judgment that there were not enough evidence presented by the plaintiff to prove the degrees of human health/fear damage. As a result, this verdict will have a potential impact, causing a big worry among residents of encouraging the spread of illegal MPBS installations.
The plaintiff has decided to appeal this case to the superior court
.
Proceedings
Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) on October 4, 2011 was found an illegal installation of two mobile phone base station units, located within one of 10th-floor apartments of a 12-floor residential building in Kaohsiung city, situated in a quite populated Wuja community of Fengshan District. A lawsuit has been filed against both CHT and the landlord for a secret wrong doing for the past three years. After several hearings, the court sentence will be held at the Kaohsiung District Court at 4pm, on October 23, 2012 (Tuesday).
Case plaintiff claims: CHT, contrary to the Telecommunications Act, installed and operated, without any residents' notice or consent, two mobile phone base station units, violating the supervision control standard measures, set by the local government for public health, and the recommendations of "Short and long-distance" principles, set by the Bureau of Health for electromagnetic radiation health hazards avoidance. So the plaintiff suffered a long 3-year period exposure, up close to the electromagnetic radiation source, which might cause mental illness, and carcinogenic body diseases, especially for those who are new-born infants and the elderly staying home for nearly 24 hours a day. Health concerns have been significantly causing plaintiffs mental discomfort and therefore a compensation of $100 thousands NT per person to be paid by defendants, according to the Paragraph 1 of Article 184 of the Civil Code, the provisions of Article 195.
Overview
The number of global mobile phone users has reached 60 million at the end of 2011, accounted for 85% of the global population. In the tiny island of Taiwan alone, its number of mobile phone users has mounted to 29 millions in 2011, the mobile phone adoption rate has reached 124.8% (according to NCC report p116-p117), the highest adoption rate in the world. Given that the area of Taiwan island is 36,000 square kilometers and the power range of a mobile phone base station (MPBS, powered at 30w-50w) is about 1 square kilometer, the number of base stations should be theoretically maxed out at 36,000. And in fact, considering about 66% of the entire island being mountains uninhabited region, the number of MPBS should be no more than 12,000 sites.
However, the National Communications Commission (NCC) of Taiwan has by far issued 34,314 "legal" 2g/3g MPBS site licenses (See Note 1). If a MPBS site has equipped with two RF base stations on average by an conservative estimate, we can imagine clearly that there exists 70,000 or so units around, six times more than the actual need. In other word, an average of 330 (23 million people on this island / 70,000 units) Taiwanese residents share a MPBS, which is again another world record. Ironically, there was a study, showing the number of illegal MPBS sites exceeds 50% of legal figures by comparing legitimate applications to the NCC with the ones, reported by the registered carriers that owns MPBS themselves. Hence, it is believed that the illegal number of MPBS in Taiwan is approximately at 30,000 MPBS units installed at our neighborhood.
In response to the huge demand of installing "illegal" MPBS from operating carriers, some camouflage companies were established, specializing in disguising MPBS installation, some disguised as water towers, TV antenna, small trees, and even air conditioners. The worst tactic used by carriers, is not even outdoor disguise, but installing MPBS's directly in the resident indoor apartments of a building, concealing the rest residents of the building of course. To be exact, a carrier company would rent an apartment of a building, setting up and operating MPBS's within the premises. The savings are not only camouflage costs, but also avoiding regulations of the Telecom Act (See Note 2), which limits how many and how much MPBS units can operate at any location. While kept in the dark, neighboring residents never realize that they have constantly (24x7) exposed to electromagnetic radiation, caused by illegal MPBS's installed, without any warning or consent.
There are growing number of local legislators at the local city level, who decided to put an end to this illegal MPBS conspiracy, by expressing their political views, intended policy to make, rules to act and neighboring watching practice . The grass-root driven movement demonstrated that how serious conditions of this illegal MPBS waves had deeply invaded into our neighborhood. Nevertheless, the questions remain to answer. Is the central government aware of the worsening situation at all? Can not the problem be well taken care of?
According to the survey report of the Control Yuan in 2012, NCC, over the course of six years since founded till 2011, has only seized 20 violations of the illegal MPBS installations, and fined each occurrence, ranging from $100 to $500 thousand NT dollars by law. But, the fines today is meaningless to these big operating carriers, when compared with their monthly revenue of $60-$70 billion NT dollars (See Note 3). The punishment costs to them are nothing. Instead, this out-dated law is allowed for government to prove its "efficiency" to nail carriers' misconducts. But in the mean time, allowing "punished" carriers to continue taking advantages of installing "illegal" MPBS units "legally".
Conflicting incidents are therefore happening everywhere and every day with or without the law. As mobile phone users demanding for good signal coverage, users, however, are also residents, living next to the door of the MPBS installation. Ironically, people tend to insist on "Not In My Back Yard" (NIMBY) principle and never trade in their health with mobile phone convenience, resulting incidents arising from protesting, fighting, and frequently bloody confrontations. The challenge for the central government is to balance the flourishing business operations and its legitimate rights of the enterprise side and the health concerns from the other resident world. While , remained unsolved dilemma, operating carriers today find their way out by sneaking into some households of the buildings to install their MPBS, to avoid people complain, protest; and also to save their efforts and costs in installing on the top floor of the buildings which costs companies to comply with Apartment Building Management Ordinance, the Telecommunications Act restrictions of radio frequency, electrical power, means of transmission, and other relevant airwaves supervision. That explains so many "illegal" MPBS units have sprung up everywhere on this island and people joking around "the NCC official registration record is for reference only" by demonstrating normal 3G signals where there is no 3G signal coverage registered in the official record, so called ghost phenomenon.
On May 31, 2011 World Health Organization (WHO) Press Release N 208 document was published by International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), in which the radio frequency electromagnetic fields were classified as a human possibly carcinogenic factor; WHO Fact sheet N 193 document in June of the same year again reaffirming that the electromagnetic field as a carcinogenic factor. Never have any decent and honest Taiwan businessman ever been so tricky to manage their business in such an irresponsible way. However, time did change some of company CEOs' mindsets, disregarding its company's reputation. Even once as an excellent Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Award winner, Chunghwa Telecom (CHT), for example, has failed to live up to its business standards, also facing the charges of installing illegal MPBS units in some residential building. Following the same wrong doings as its rivals did, CHT has now faced lawsuit for trapping residents like laboratory white rats under the potential hazardous exposure of long-term electromagnetic radiation.
The most astonishing fact is when the offended victims stood up against such a misconduct, the result has not been fruitful for them. The residents normally sued the carrier in question for several compensations, including damaging human health, suffering mental illness, violating the constitutional freedom from fear, and demanding better regulations to cease from infringement. Unfortunately, neither the legislative yuan nor the judicial system today has yet responded in favor of vulnerable residents, who are exposing to the electromagnetic radiation on a daily and long-term basis.
Historical Hazards
It's not hard to imagine similar examples in the history of mankind, like then-new technology "X-ray" and then-new material "Asbestos".
The X-ray was first discovered to examine human bone architecture but then we did not know the harm when the protection standards enacted in 1902 was "each year not more than three thousand rem". In 1904, Edison's assistant died of radiation-induced skin inflammation, followed by Madame Curie, her daughters, and many others, might have been died of radioactive cancer. That was when X-ray was limited to the standard in 70 rem in 1924. And then in 1949 the standard dropped to 15 rem; 1990 year again on the occupational exposure standard dropped to two rem, and the general public exposure of 0.1 rem was last set in 1991. The initial protective standard was 30,000 times higher than what we have realized today.
Found in the same nineteenth century, asbestos was widely used in construction, textile, boiler insulation, brake parts in vehicles, etc. More than two thousand applications with asbestos were deployed around the globe for half a century before medical research found its health hazards causing lung cancer, Mesolithic cells tumor and asbestos lung disease. Today asbestos has been a complete ban in the advanced countries. As time goes and research unveils the truth, people will learn and change our safety standard dramatically.
By the same token, if Taiwan government neglected to refrain from the illegal MPBS spread, the island would be another historical hazard example, becoming the laboratory of electromagnetic radiation. People living on this island would inevitably be white rats of electromagnetic radiation.
On May 23 (Tuesday), the first case in Taiwan justice to sue Cunghwa Telecom (CHT) carrier was given in the Kaohsiung District Court, regarding to a charge of illegal installation of mobile phone base station (MPBS) site at the populated residential apartment building on October 4, 2011. The judge (民事第六庭法官王琁) announced her first judgment that there were not enough evidence presented by the plaintiff to prove the degrees of human health/fear damage. As a result, this verdict will have a potential impact, causing a big worry among residents of encouraging the spread of illegal MPBS installations.
The plaintiff has decided to appeal this case to the superior court
.
Proceedings
Chunghwa Telecom (CHT) on October 4, 2011 was found an illegal installation of two mobile phone base station units, located within one of 10th-floor apartments of a 12-floor residential building in Kaohsiung city, situated in a quite populated Wuja community of Fengshan District. A lawsuit has been filed against both CHT and the landlord for a secret wrong doing for the past three years. After several hearings, the court sentence will be held at the Kaohsiung District Court at 4pm, on October 23, 2012 (Tuesday).
Case plaintiff claims: CHT, contrary to the Telecommunications Act, installed and operated, without any residents' notice or consent, two mobile phone base station units, violating the supervision control standard measures, set by the local government for public health, and the recommendations of "Short and long-distance" principles, set by the Bureau of Health for electromagnetic radiation health hazards avoidance. So the plaintiff suffered a long 3-year period exposure, up close to the electromagnetic radiation source, which might cause mental illness, and carcinogenic body diseases, especially for those who are new-born infants and the elderly staying home for nearly 24 hours a day. Health concerns have been significantly causing plaintiffs mental discomfort and therefore a compensation of $100 thousands NT per person to be paid by defendants, according to the Paragraph 1 of Article 184 of the Civil Code, the provisions of Article 195.
Overview
The number of global mobile phone users has reached 60 million at the end of 2011, accounted for 85% of the global population. In the tiny island of Taiwan alone, its number of mobile phone users has mounted to 29 millions in 2011, the mobile phone adoption rate has reached 124.8% (according to NCC report p116-p117), the highest adoption rate in the world. Given that the area of Taiwan island is 36,000 square kilometers and the power range of a mobile phone base station (MPBS, powered at 30w-50w) is about 1 square kilometer, the number of base stations should be theoretically maxed out at 36,000. And in fact, considering about 66% of the entire island being mountains uninhabited region, the number of MPBS should be no more than 12,000 sites.
However, the National Communications Commission (NCC) of Taiwan has by far issued 34,314 "legal" 2g/3g MPBS site licenses (See Note 1). If a MPBS site has equipped with two RF base stations on average by an conservative estimate, we can imagine clearly that there exists 70,000 or so units around, six times more than the actual need. In other word, an average of 330 (23 million people on this island / 70,000 units) Taiwanese residents share a MPBS, which is again another world record. Ironically, there was a study, showing the number of illegal MPBS sites exceeds 50% of legal figures by comparing legitimate applications to the NCC with the ones, reported by the registered carriers that owns MPBS themselves. Hence, it is believed that the illegal number of MPBS in Taiwan is approximately at 30,000 MPBS units installed at our neighborhood.
In response to the huge demand of installing "illegal" MPBS from operating carriers, some camouflage companies were established, specializing in disguising MPBS installation, some disguised as water towers, TV antenna, small trees, and even air conditioners. The worst tactic used by carriers, is not even outdoor disguise, but installing MPBS's directly in the resident indoor apartments of a building, concealing the rest residents of the building of course. To be exact, a carrier company would rent an apartment of a building, setting up and operating MPBS's within the premises. The savings are not only camouflage costs, but also avoiding regulations of the Telecom Act (See Note 2), which limits how many and how much MPBS units can operate at any location. While kept in the dark, neighboring residents never realize that they have constantly (24x7) exposed to electromagnetic radiation, caused by illegal MPBS's installed, without any warning or consent.
There are growing number of local legislators at the local city level, who decided to put an end to this illegal MPBS conspiracy, by expressing their political views, intended policy to make, rules to act and neighboring watching practice . The grass-root driven movement demonstrated that how serious conditions of this illegal MPBS waves had deeply invaded into our neighborhood. Nevertheless, the questions remain to answer. Is the central government aware of the worsening situation at all? Can not the problem be well taken care of?
According to the survey report of the Control Yuan in 2012, NCC, over the course of six years since founded till 2011, has only seized 20 violations of the illegal MPBS installations, and fined each occurrence, ranging from $100 to $500 thousand NT dollars by law. But, the fines today is meaningless to these big operating carriers, when compared with their monthly revenue of $60-$70 billion NT dollars (See Note 3). The punishment costs to them are nothing. Instead, this out-dated law is allowed for government to prove its "efficiency" to nail carriers' misconducts. But in the mean time, allowing "punished" carriers to continue taking advantages of installing "illegal" MPBS units "legally".
Conflicting incidents are therefore happening everywhere and every day with or without the law. As mobile phone users demanding for good signal coverage, users, however, are also residents, living next to the door of the MPBS installation. Ironically, people tend to insist on "Not In My Back Yard" (NIMBY) principle and never trade in their health with mobile phone convenience, resulting incidents arising from protesting, fighting, and frequently bloody confrontations. The challenge for the central government is to balance the flourishing business operations and its legitimate rights of the enterprise side and the health concerns from the other resident world. While , remained unsolved dilemma, operating carriers today find their way out by sneaking into some households of the buildings to install their MPBS, to avoid people complain, protest; and also to save their efforts and costs in installing on the top floor of the buildings which costs companies to comply with Apartment Building Management Ordinance, the Telecommunications Act restrictions of radio frequency, electrical power, means of transmission, and other relevant airwaves supervision. That explains so many "illegal" MPBS units have sprung up everywhere on this island and people joking around "the NCC official registration record is for reference only" by demonstrating normal 3G signals where there is no 3G signal coverage registered in the official record, so called ghost phenomenon.
On May 31, 2011 World Health Organization (WHO) Press Release N 208 document was published by International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), in which the radio frequency electromagnetic fields were classified as a human possibly carcinogenic factor; WHO Fact sheet N 193 document in June of the same year again reaffirming that the electromagnetic field as a carcinogenic factor. Never have any decent and honest Taiwan businessman ever been so tricky to manage their business in such an irresponsible way. However, time did change some of company CEOs' mindsets, disregarding its company's reputation. Even once as an excellent Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Award winner, Chunghwa Telecom (CHT), for example, has failed to live up to its business standards, also facing the charges of installing illegal MPBS units in some residential building. Following the same wrong doings as its rivals did, CHT has now faced lawsuit for trapping residents like laboratory white rats under the potential hazardous exposure of long-term electromagnetic radiation.
The most astonishing fact is when the offended victims stood up against such a misconduct, the result has not been fruitful for them. The residents normally sued the carrier in question for several compensations, including damaging human health, suffering mental illness, violating the constitutional freedom from fear, and demanding better regulations to cease from infringement. Unfortunately, neither the legislative yuan nor the judicial system today has yet responded in favor of vulnerable residents, who are exposing to the electromagnetic radiation on a daily and long-term basis.
Historical Hazards
It's not hard to imagine similar examples in the history of mankind, like then-new technology "X-ray" and then-new material "Asbestos".
The X-ray was first discovered to examine human bone architecture but then we did not know the harm when the protection standards enacted in 1902 was "each year not more than three thousand rem". In 1904, Edison's assistant died of radiation-induced skin inflammation, followed by Madame Curie, her daughters, and many others, might have been died of radioactive cancer. That was when X-ray was limited to the standard in 70 rem in 1924. And then in 1949 the standard dropped to 15 rem; 1990 year again on the occupational exposure standard dropped to two rem, and the general public exposure of 0.1 rem was last set in 1991. The initial protective standard was 30,000 times higher than what we have realized today.
Found in the same nineteenth century, asbestos was widely used in construction, textile, boiler insulation, brake parts in vehicles, etc. More than two thousand applications with asbestos were deployed around the globe for half a century before medical research found its health hazards causing lung cancer, Mesolithic cells tumor and asbestos lung disease. Today asbestos has been a complete ban in the advanced countries. As time goes and research unveils the truth, people will learn and change our safety standard dramatically.
By the same token, if Taiwan government neglected to refrain from the illegal MPBS spread, the island would be another historical hazard example, becoming the laboratory of electromagnetic radiation. People living on this island would inevitably be white rats of electromagnetic radiation.