Is 5G Technology Safe?

With 5G starting to rollout later in the year, it uses super high-frequency radio airwaves which has ignited old fears about cellphone radiation risks.  The public has concerns that this high-frequency spectrum could pose health risks to the public.   Verizon, T Mobile, and other carriers are in a race to deploy the 5G generation of mobile technology.  The current president of the United States commented that US based companies should pursue 5G technology.  In his comments it was made clear that the US must not fall behind other nations, like China, in the effort to develop and roll out the technology.  This new technology, 5G, uses radio frequency (RF) which uses shorter wavelengths that is much more dangerous to humans.  There have been many scientific studies linking RF radiation to DNA damage and several types of cancers.  In 2011 the World Health organization classified RF Radiation as, “possibly carcinogenic” (Press Release 2011), meaning cancer causing.  While 2G, 3G, and 4G uses between 1 GHz to 5GHz frequencies, “5G is even more dangerous because it uses much higher frequencies, between 24 GHz to 90 GHz”.  To give you a comparison, “a microwave oven cooks food using 2.45 GHz, while the US Army’s microwave crowd control weapon heats human skin from a distance using 95 GHz”.  Since 5G has shorter wavelengths it is concluded that the wave will travel a shorter distance and the more objects in its path will block the signal.  With the rollout of 5G, many mini cell stations will be placed frequent around surrounding neighborhoods, depending on how many lines of sight obstacles are present.  This means, including the mini cell stations, there will be as many as two hundred as many cell towers currently in place.  These towers will also have to emit lower cell frequencies so that signals can get into homes without being blocked by walls, causing more exposure of the RF radiation than we are around today.

A professor from the University of California, Joel Moskowitz, discussed the health problems unique to 5G RF radiation stating “5G technology will transfer data in bursts and spikes that will heat up human skin” (Moskowitz, Is 5g Harmful to Us Health, 2019).  RF also can have devastating effects on male reproductive system (“Moskowitz states 5G Wi-Fi has a very negative effect on male sperm cells, it can lead to male infertility in some cases, but it can damage the DNA so that if the man is able to reproduce, the damaged DNA will be passed on to their offspring and they may not be able to reproduce”).  Moskowitz states, “since we all have been exposed to so much RF radiation for so long now, with the invention of cellular phones, the future study of RF radiation will be more difficult because we no longer have any groups to study (as a controlled group) that have not already been exposed to large amounts of RF radiation”.  “One of the main method’s in scientific study is to test one group with a certain exposure, and one without.  “We will no longer have any without”.  According to the leading scientists, from forty different countries, “5G has been spoken out against being rolled out”.  There has been hundreds of studies and thousands of written papers, all peer reviewed, showing the negative effects of RF radiation and the dangers of the frequencies used in 5G.  Governments of the world will soon be broadcasting 5G cellular waves from satellites all over the world.  According to Barry Trower’s, a British physicist, in his own words “there will be no safe place to be”, Toronto Star (2018).  Martin Pall, professor biochemistry at Washington State, states “evidence is clear that cellphone radiation is dangerous, existing studies show clear links between cellphone radiation and a wide range of medical maladies from cancer to infertility to depression”.  Other experts disagree on health-related findings of the effects of RF energy.  Expert Kenneth Foster, professor of bioengineering at the University of Pennsylvania, state “5G activists have been cherry-picking findings from studies that support their views while ignoring other research that contradicts or finds no link between cellphone radiation and health hazards”.  There needs to be a broad review of the existing research and more well-done studies focusing on health-related endpoints. World-wide local governments are trying to stop the 5G technology, insisting that companies prove the technology is not harmful to people.  The Telecom Act of 1996 prohibits local governments from using health or safety concerns as a reason to block cellphone deployment, so there is a legal issue with trying to block the 5G rollout.  As long as equipment makers comply with FCC safety standards; local governments cannot stop deployment of 5G.  The manufactures of RF-emitting devices verify compliance with FCC safety limits, not directly conduct toxicity studies.  If this were done consistently for all newly introduced devices, it would basically stop any new RF products.  So far in 2019, the FFC has approved over twenty-one thousand high frequency emitting devices across the entire frequency range.  Senate has introduced on June 27, 2019 SB 2012, a companion bill to Congresswoman Anna Eshoo’s HR530, which would repeal FCC rules that limit state and local government control over telecom infrastructure.  Scientists and physicians have applauded this effect, they fell there is substantial evidence of adverse public health and environmental effects, along with the uncontested fact that there is little research on health and environmental effects of 5G technology, although certain research indicates there are adverse effects on the skin and eyes.

References

• World Health Organization, Press Release (2011, May 31). RF Electromagnetic Fields as Possibly Carcinogenic to Humans.
• Behar, R. (2019, February 11). Is 5G Dangerous? Retrieved from https://www.digitaltrends.com
• Reardon, M. (2019, June 20).  5G Phones and Your Health: What you Need to Know. Retrieved from https://www.cnet.com
• Trower, B. (2019, February 1).  Negative Health Symptoms from RF Radiation. Retrieved from https://www.radiationhealthrisks.com