A response to concerns about 5G phone masts is due to go before health bosses next week.
Members of Brighton and Hove City Council’s Health and Wellbeing Board, made up of councillors and senior members of Brighton and Hove Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG), are expected to respond to concerns raised in a 2,240-signature petition.
Campaigners fear that guidelines set by the International Commission on Non-Ionising Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) – and followed by Public Health England – are not safe.
The country’s first non-university led 5G test bed was set up in central Brighton in 2017 as part of a national Digital Catapault to link businesses and universities, enabling cutting-edge technological innovation.
In the report going before the board on Tuesday (28 January), 5G radio technology is described as offering faster mobile broadband connections with good quality connections.
It said: “5G technology utilises high frequency electromagnetic fields (EMF), around 10 times higher than those used for current network technologies.
“This form of energy is unable to break chemical bonds in the way that X-rays can and is known as non-ionising radiation.
“The higher the frequency of electromagnetic waves, the lower the ability of the wave to penetrate body tissues.”
“High-frequency EMFs are already used widely in a variety of technologies, including communications (mobile phones, base stations, wifi, radio, TV and security devices), in medicine (in MRI scanners) and for heating purposes (microwave ovens).”
Telecoms firms Three and O2 are expected to introduce 5G to Brighton and Hove this year.
The report said that hundreds of scientific papers had been published into the health effects of 5G.
It said: “The consensus from the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) are that there is no conclusive evidence of adverse health effects related to short term or long term exposure to high frequency EMF.
“It is possible that if someone is exposed to high levels of EMF, they may experience heating of body tissues, and that is why the ICNIRP set strict safety thresholds that limit the amount of EMF that people can be exposed to.
“The safety threshold they have set is well below the level at which body heating may occur.”
Public Health England has told the council current exposure is “well within” international guidelines.
The council’s position is that planning policy cannot be used to halt the roll out of 5G due to government regulations.
It also looked into economic development. The report said: “The economic benefit to 5G technology is that it offers a step-change in data speeds, offering ten to 20 gigabits per second connectivity.
“It will also address the latency issues of existing mobile technology.
“Latency is how quickly a connection can be made and the data can start being shared, fundamental in applications like driverless cars where a latency of a few fractions of a second between vehicles talking to each other could cause problems.
“5G masts also rely on a dense network of full fibre connections to operate.
“The roll out of 5G will therefore also bring with it the roll out of much more fibre optic cabling in the city, benefiting businesses and homes that the fibre passes.”
The board is being asked to note the report when it meets at Hove Town Hall on Tuesday (28 January). The meeting is due to start at 4pm and should be open to the public.
No mention of who authored this ‘report’ – other local news coverage says “health experts” yet it reads like a corporate PR exercise.
Nor does any of the content of this article address the safety of 5G – just dances around the issue with deliberately misleading waffle.
There’s a reason for these discrepancies.
High time people woke up.
I prefer to listen to real experts, not conspiracy nutters who have been spreading scaremongering misinformation about EMF and getting 2240 gullible people to sign a petition outside Waitrose.
Perhaps they should have a look at https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000bn50/click-09112019
Peter Cahllis, if you don’t understand why this is a concern you have not done enough research. It is NOT a conspiracy theory, there is clear evidence of harm at levels lower than the limits set. Standards have not been changed since the 1990’s. Many insurance companies will not underwrite for illness associated with radiofrequency or eletromagnetic fields and that isn’t because they don’t belive its safe. A good place for you to start is the Bioinitiave from 2012. Non Industry funded research shows 70% evidence of harm (proven to increase oxidative stress, damage DNA, links to increased resistance of bacteria, increased risk of salivary and brain cancer, infertility and much more), but in INDUSTRY led studies that is only 30%. ICRNIP is led by pro industry so called experts and the WHO take their guidance form them. The WHO is currently reviewing all areas related to EMF and many are called it to be changed from a 2B possible carcinogen to a 1, proven carcinogen. There have been no safety testing on 5g frequencies. The telecom industry is the new tobacco industry and we should apply the precautionary priciple rather than rolling it out everywhere without public consultation. Because of the way 5G is, it doesn’t travel well so they will have to have small cell towers everywhere. There will be no opt out of this whether you have a 5g smart phone or not. If you are taking the nod from the BBC on this, you really should open your eyes. The BBC are biased, always have been. Look at research studies, extensive peer reviewed studies who have proven clear evidence of harm. Not only that, insect and bird populations are down (proven to be partly down increasing radio frequencies), they are felling mature tress everywhere to make way for posts and the carbon footprint of the industry is growing day on day. Then you have privacy and security to consider, but if Click says its not a real concern, then you must be right! Laughable you posted a BBC clip in response to this, shows you have done any actual research of your own. https://bioinitiative.org/
At least spell my name correctly. Nice bit of typical scaremongering misinformation with from an activist group. May I suggest you also have a look at https://www.wired.com/story/worried-5g-health-effects-dont-be/ which covers many of the points you are trying to make.
Would be interested in the WHO EMF study and which frequencies they are investigating. Please provide citation.
One key point at the end “according to statistics published by the National Cancer Institute, the rate of brain cancer in the US actually went down between 1992 and 2016 even as mobile phone use skyrocketed.”.