Remember when new inventions were exciting? We used to say, “It’s the greatest thing since sliced bread!”
But for some reason, people are embracing wild claims about the dangers of 5G technology. Scientists tell us it is biologically impossible for the 5G mobile phone signal to either transmit the novel coronavirus or to reduce our defenses to it, according to BBC News “Reality Check.” For good measure, the same article debunks the conspiracy theory that Bill Gates has masterminded a grand plan to implant microchips into humans along with a coronavirus vaccine. But back to 5G.
The “G” in 5G stands for “Generation,” as in this is the fifth generation of mobile phone and wireless technology. Each generation has frightened some people. Rumors about the potential dangers of 5G pre-date the coronavirus, according to Full Fact (https://fullfact.org/online/5g-and-coronavirus-conspiracy-theories-came/).
“To be clear, these theories are wrong,” Full Fact states. “Over the last year, posts claiming 5G is harmful tended to be based on the belief that the signals are more powerful than those that preceded it (4G and 3G), and that therefore (the posters believed) 5G must be dangerous to life.”
Recently, 5G technology has been described as a war weapon. The fact is, all technologies can be used as weapons in all kinds of wars – trade wars and military wars.
Dr. Michelle Dickinson, a nanotechnologist from Auckland, New Zealand, wrote in LinkedIn that “4G is 10 times faster than 3G and 5G is predicted to be 1,000 times faster than our current systems.” So, yes, this technology may be put to all kinds of uses – good and bad.
Dickinson’s article (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/5g-weapon-should-we-scared-dr-michelle-dickinson-mnzm-) explained why we need not be scared of 5G frying our brains, being used as a military weapon or creating cancer.
Too much exposure to ionized radiation can damage DNA or cause cancer, which is why we limit the number of X-rays we have. “The radiation emitted from radios, mobile phones, phone towers and Wi-Fi routers – RF radiation - is non-ionizing. It sits at the low-energy end of the electromagnetic spectrum and is much safer than high-energy ionizing radiation like X-rays.”
She adds, “Current evidence does not confirm the existence of any health consequences from exposure to low-level electromagnetic fields from mobile phones. The great news is that although the power levels involved in mobile and wireless telecommunications are already incredibly low, as the frequency goes up the depth of penetration into biological tissues goes down. This means that 5G is even less likely to penetrate the body than the current technology that we use.”
A similar conclusion comes from How-To Geek contributor Dave Johnson, a tech journalist who checked some of the many online claims that the greater frequency of 5G constitutes a health risk. “There’s little real science to stand behind it,” he writes. (See https://www.howtogeek.com/423720/how-worried-should-you-be-about-the-health-risks-of-5g/) “5G (RF) remains non-ionizing in nature.”
So far, the biggest danger appears to come from misinformation. Fear of 5G has caused vandalism to radio towers and prompted public school officials to question purchasing more laptops and wireless devices at a time when they are becoming more useful for education.
There is always a possibility that our nifty 5G technology could eventually be proven to create a hazard, even though that has not been the case with 1G, 2G, 3G and even 4G. Even sliced bread has been brought into question, albeit because of what is in the bread rather than how it is sliced. So, while it may be worthwhile to follow the science on 5G, it isn’t worth losing sleep over.
