Abstract

A cross-sectional study was conducted from Oct 2014- Dec 2014, of three hundred ninety four randomly selected inhabitants in Sanctoria at Kulti block of Burdwan district who are having there for more than three years near two selected mobile phone base stations was undertaken using a questionnaire. Nineteen different symptoms (Non Specific Health Symptoms-NSHS), described as radiofrequency sickness, were studied by means of the chi-square test studies made in relation to the sex, age and distance from mobile phone base stations show significant (p <0.05) increase as compared to people living >300m or not exposed to base stations. Women respondents complained the feeling of nausea, sleep disturbances, irritability and the men complained the feeling of Back pain. Relation to age the respondents older than 19 years, this study shows, the existence of a greater sensibility of some NSHS symptoms such as headaches, fatigue, sleep disturbances, depressive tendencies ,irritability, feeling of discomfort, hearing problem, back pain when comparisons are made between subjects living up to 300m vs. subjects of the reference group. In relation to distance, the complaints were received in a significantly higher (p <0.05) proportions in the distance zones of 20m to 300m than the <20m from base stations. Up to 20m the symptoms are headaches, fatigue, sleep disturbance, feeling of discomfort, irritability, depressive tendencies, difficulty in concentration, movement difficulties, hearing problem, and back pain. Significant differences (P < 0.05) are observed up to 100 m from base stations for symptoms such as complained headaches, fatigue, felling of discomfort, irritability, depressive tendencies, difficulty in concentration, hearing problem, back pain. Beyond 200 m only the symptom of headaches, fatigue, sleep disturbances, irritability, movement difficulties, back pain is reported at a significantly high frequency (P < 0.05).