We should be cautious and stop the global distribution of 5G telecom networks until safety is confirmed, according to an expert.
Currently, there are no health concerns about 5G and COVID, despite what conspiracy theorists have been suggesting.
However, “the transmitter density required for 5G means that more people will be exposed to radio-frequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMFs), and at levels that emerging evidence suggests, are potentially harmful to health,” says Prof. John William Frank, Usher Institute, University of Edinburgh.
He published his opinion online in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health.
5G uses much higher frequency radio waves than in the past. It makes use of very new, and relatively unevaluated, supportive technology to enable this higher data transmission capacity, according to Prof. Frank.
He says, “Its inherent fragility means that transmission boosting ‘cell’ antennae are generally required every 100-300 m—which is far more spatially dense than the transmission masts required for older 2G, 3G, and 4G technology, using lower frequency waves.”
Several major reviews of the existing evidence on the potential health harms of 5G have been published, but these have been of “varying scientific quality,” he suggests.
He writes. “And they have not stopped the clamor from a growing number of engineers, scientists, and doctors internationally…calling on governments to raise their safety standards for RF-EMFs, commission more and better research, and hold off on further increases in public exposure, pending clearer evidence of safety.”
“It is highly likely that each of these many forms of transmission causes somewhat different biological effects—making sound, comprehensive and up-to-date research on those effects virtually impossible,” Prof. Frank explains.
Exposures to RF-EMFs may produce a wide range of health effects, including reproductive, fetal, oncological, neuropsychiatric, skin, eye, and immunological, but there is no evidence to suggest that it is associated with the spread of COVID, Prof. Frank emphasizes.
He says, “There are knowledgeable commentators’ reports on the web debunking this theory, and no respectable scientist or publication has backed it,” adding, “the theory that 5G and related EMFs have contributed to the pandemic is baseless.”
Prof. Frank concludes, “Until we know more about what we are getting into, from a health and ecological point of view, those putative gains need to wait.” The article originally appeared on Medical Xpress.
