Dangers of 5G: Public Safety (Devra Davis, PhD)

Dangers Of 5G: New Technology Draws Concerns For The Environment, Public Safety
By Dr. Devra Davis, International Business Times, Mar 14, 2020

Maryland has recently been at the center of the 5G technology debate. Although the state’s legislature is unlikely to fast track 5G, officials from Baltimore to Montgomery County are debating where to place hundreds of new “small cells” which are basically shorter cell towers creating the backbone for the new 5G network. Many 5G antenna sites will be just feet away from residents’ homes.  

European media and published research have reported mounting evidence of environmental and public health hazards of wireless radiation from 5G and the Internet of things. Yet, the U.S. is moving full steam ahead to allow the deployment of over 800,000 antenna installations. Amidst federal inaction on this ever-growing exposure, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, Reps. Anna G. Eshoo, Thomas Suozzi, Daniel Lipinsky, Andy Kim and Peter A. DeFazio have all requested safety documentation.

In the U.S., the legislators of New Hampshire, Oregon, Louisiana, and Alaska appear to be among the few to take seriously the need to vet fully this new technology before unleashing it on the entire nation. 

When it comes to environmental impacts of wireless, researchers report that exposures gravely affect the behavior and physiology of bees, reducing honey production. Because bees absorb the higher frequencies of 5G much more intensely, the future of agriculture could be imperiled. 

An equally consequential and little-considered global impact of 5G stems from reports of meteorologists that once the 5G millimeter wave spectrum is fully activated, weather prediction and celestial navigation will be set back 4 decades. Carbon transition think tanks are warning that the explosion of electronics will increase energy consumption and contribute to climate change. While the impacts of wireless expansion on the tree canopy have eluded major headlines, studies showing human health impacts have been subject to sophisticated “war-games.”  

In 2018, the U.S. gold standard National Toxicology Program (NTP) confirmed “clear evidence” that cellphone radiation caused heart tumors in rats as well as DNA damage. Within days of the report’s release, well-placed articles appeared debunking the findings.  Bizarrely, this $30 million government study, as well as others linking phone radiation with tumor promotion, memory and behavioral changes do not appear on EPA, and  CDC website pages that purport to summarize the latest research on the issue. The FDA now states they “do not agree” with the NTP cancer conclusions, and they “believe the existing safety limits for cell phones remain acceptable for protecting the public health.” 

Wait a minute. 

The government’s ace testing program concludes that cellphone radiation causes cancer and the FDA says they disagree? In fact, the NTP study is not the only one pinpointing human health risks from phone radiation. Israeli scientists have reported that 5G frequencies resonate with human sweat ducts effectively sending signals more intensely into and throughout the body. Why does the Cleveland Clinic advise men who wish to father healthy children to keep phones off their bodies to avoid damage to their reproductive organs? Is it really possible that high-intensity magnetic fields and millimeter waves can have many different therapeutic uses in medicine to stimulate cell growth and repair for more than half a century, yet there are no negative effects? 

Slovenia has halted 5G awaiting health and safety investigations. Switzerland municipalities are insisting on proof of safety before permit can be granted for 5G. The  environment minister of Brussels, Belgium declared their citizens will “not be guinea pigs whose health can be sold at profit.” Over 140 Italian cities are issuing resolutions to halt 5G. 

Columnist Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. pointed out that, contrary to the notion that concerns about 5G are the work of clueless feckless Russian trolls, British, U.S. and Russian research on the dangers of electromagnetic fields goes back over 30 years.   

5G and 4G densification will increase our environmental levels of wireless. We are left to wonder why do China, Russia, Poland, Italy, and several other European countries allow up to hundreds of times less wireless radiation into the environment than does the U.S? Moreover, while other countries monitor wireless levels, the US does not. The last EPA report on the topic was released in 1986, back when a gallon of gasoline cost less than one dollar. The EPA was defunded from setting federal safety limits in 1996 when the US then adopted industry-friendly regulations.  Since then, environmental levels of wireless radiation have multiplied exponentially. 

It’s time for a reset of our lackadaisical policies on wireless. Let’s hope the private sector that influences the FCC, which has been deemed a captured agency by a Harvard Ethics Report, grasps the gravity of this issue before it is too late for honeybees and the rest of us.

Dr. Devra Davis is President of ehtrust.org, who served in the Clinton administration from 1993-1997 and was  a member of the team of IPCC scientists awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007https://www.ibtimes.com/dangers-5g-new-technology-draws-concerns-environment-public-safety-2939813

http://www.electrosmogprevention.org/public-health-alert/health-alerts-5g-small-wireless-cells/dangers-of-5g-public-safety/