Is 5G dangerous for Humans?

 

5G all the rage right now but some people are worried that it could make them sick so I have decided to do a deep dive on this new technology and find out how it affects the human body.

Are you sick of slow mobile data speeds?

Do you hate waiting for video streaming services to load? 

Is the Second Life you built-in virtual reality to escape the crushing existence of the real world constantly disappointing you, then if we got the gift for you introducing 5G.

5G is the next-generation technology for mobile networks and the evolution of 3G and 4G promises lightning-fast speeds lower latency and increased network connections. Alright so 5g sure sounds like a promising new technology but some are concerned it may have adverse health effects in November 2018 a social media post went viral and suggested that in the Netherlands 300 birds have died due to 5g testing.  Forums are awash with activists suggesting that the dangers of cellphone radiation are being suppressed.

So does 5g actually have health effects or is it just a conspiracy theory that's getting a little bit out of hand?

Now we're gonna find out.

So why are people afraid of 5g, one-word "Radiation". All of our connected devices emit radiofrequency electromagnetic energy of various wavelengths. Low-frequency wavelengths are used in say powering your smartphone's TVs and computers and this is referred to as non-ionizing radiation it's not considered energetic enough to cause any health effects, on the other side of the spectrum you have high-frequency wavelengths such as ultraviolet radiation from the Sun or x-rays this is a more powerful type of energy and it's known as ionizing radiation, it can rip electrons away from atoms and do some real damage to DNA and if you're exposed to a lot of this type of radiation it can introduce errors into your DNA causing the growth of diseases such as cancer. Fortunately, 5G radiation is non-ionizing completely different from radiation from the Sun or from x-rays. 

So why are people worried? 

There are a few important changes coming with 5G technology, that have some people concerned about the negative health effects 

• 1) It'll use millimeter-wave technology.
• 2) That technology operates at higher frequencies than 3G and 4G.
• 3) That means we'll need more base stations and antennas to ensure we cover the same ground. 

So how exactly will millimeter wave technology affect the human body? 

The skin is a very effective barrier against things like bacteria viruses and even the weather. Now here's the thing about 5G. Ionizing radiation such as some wavelengths of UV from the Sun can penetrate the skin whereas things, like radio waves, actually penetrate through the skin without doing any damage at all. 5G wavelengths fall smack in the middle they only barely penetrate the skin and they don't have the energy required to damage DNA. Still, that information isn't enough to allay fears many opponents of 5G point to a World Health Organization report in 2011, that suggests cellphone radiation could cause cancer. Now that report was put together by the International Agency for research on cancer and suggests that cellphone radiation should be listed as possibly carcinogenic, like aloe leaf extract diesel fuel and pickled vegetables. Thousands of scientific studies have been performed looking at radiofrequency radiation and its effects on human cells animals like rats and mice and human tissue including brain skin and eyes. And there are literally mountains of data and mountains of research suggesting that there's no link between cellphone radiation and something like cancer. But take a look online and you'll find hundreds of websites and Facebook groups with a laundry list of problems apparently associated with 5G. So 5g is new and untested. 

Actually, 5g isn't new the wavelengths have been used in airport scanners and radar for a long time and initially 5g will actually use the same wavelengths as 4G more antennas means, more exposure as we've already shown 5g isn't energetic enough to penetrate the skin or damage DNA. Some scientists even suggest that new beamforming technology could reduce exposure. High-frequency wavelengths are worse than low-frequency wavelengths. That's not the case for ionizing radiation and other radio waves I mean even visible light can penetrate the skin if it's powerful enough. 

Two of the most frequently mentioned studies are the U.S. national toxicology study and a study by Italy's Rama Zini Institute in both studies male rats that were exposed to huge amounts of radiofrequency radiation sometimes develop cancer in their hearts and in their brains. However, the studies have been dubbed controversial because they feature huge amounts of radiation and exposure that far exceeds what humans would experience making it much harder to draw conclusions.  All that is to say that many of the arguments against 5G are not based on strong scientific facts.

Despite that, over 240 scientists and researchers have petitioned the World Health Organization Environment Programme to take another look at the damage radiofrequency radiation may be having and not just on humans but also on the environment.  And that makes sense right. I mean phones practically surround every single facet of our daily lives.  And they've done so over the last 20 years so we should see an increase in the incidence of brain tumors. But we don't study in the US Europe and Australia have all failed to show increasing brain cancer rates since the 1990s when phones became adopted even though 5g hasn't been around long enough to perform these types of studies with cell phones. 

The frequencies and wavelengths that users have been anything about these frequencies because people used to use waveguides communication systems and also for radar systems. So where does that leave us? On one hand, we need more good science. We need more research into 5G millimeter wavelengths and long term studies examining how exposure affects human health.