5G Technology: Completely Safe, Scientific Reviews Reveal

A pair of scientific reviews have backed up all previous studies about 5G technology to date. It concluded that the next-generation connectivity standard does not pose any danger to health.

Administered by the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency or ARPANSA and the Swinburne University of Technology in Australia, the said reviews looked back at more than 130 previous studies and reassessed more than 100 experiments to search for possible risks in the millimeter-wave frequencies with low-level radio waves above six Gigahertz.

A ScienceAlert report said that while the two studies and scientific examination are likely to continue its in-depth look at what has been known so far about 5G, including its linked technologies, it summarized that it is impeccably safe at any levels with regards to people exposed to it.

According to Assistant Director of Assessment and Advice at ARPANSA, Ken Karipidis, a review on all research provided no verified or confirmed evidence that low-level radio waves like the once the 5G network use are dangerous to human health.

While frequencies higher than six Gigahertz have been regularly used in medical equipment, radar, and security tools and apparatus like the screening scanners used in airports, they are about to be utilized much more widely as 5G networks get rolled out globally.

Biological Impacts

Thoroughly examining the data, as well as the reported results on mutation or genotoxicity, gene expression, cell proliferation, membrane function, cell signaling, and other biological effects, the study investigators could not find any confirmed or verified evidence that low-level RF fields higher than six Gigahertz like those used by 5G technology are hazardous.

One of the said reviews also indicated that where some biological impacts were noted, they were, in general, not independently simulated, and the research used lacked rigorous methods for quality control.

Also according to the researchers, although more can definitely be expected, there will be ongoing analyses into 5G in the coming years.

Karipidis said that they recommend that the future investigational studies enhance their design with specific attention to "dosimetry and temperature control," and that epidemiological studies in the future continue to observe and follow long-term health impacts in the population associated with wireless telecommunications.

Findings Consistent With Safety Standards

The findings of the team were consistent with the standards which The International Commission for Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection or the ICNIRP set out and widely adopted all over the world.

The most recently updated standard has been drawn up by ARPANSA, underscoring the limit to which radio waves utilized in wireless communication would be hazardous. Specifically, exposure from WiFi is 100 million times slower than this standard. Exposure from mobile phone towers, on the other hand, is half-a-million times below.

The researchers said that apprehensions about this new technology's safety are understandable and valid. However, despite what might be read on social media, all of the hard proofs that have been gathered so far say that 5G is safe to deploy.

In a ZDNet report, Sarah Loughran, ARPANSA program director, said that one of the main differences now is the resources when it comes to communicating such apprehension or panic.

Therefore, she continued, social media, specifically, is a much bigger thing in the past, and was not present when 2G came out.

So, explained Loughran, people were worried, they just did not have as many platforms or greater voice so they can express their concerns whereas now, there are many different ways for them to express their apprehensions about 5G technology. Both reviews came out in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology (5G mobile networks and health-a state-of-the-science review of the research into low-level RF fields above 6 GHz).

In 2019, BBC, through its YouTube video below, had a related report on the safety of 5G technology:

Check out more news and information on 5G Network on Science Times.