The Threat of 5G High-Band Spectrum Networks

FCC Commissioner Tom Wheeler recently gave a speech applauding America’s launching of high-band spectrum 5G networks – which will bathe the nation in more electromagnetic fields. “These bands offer huge swaths of spectrum for super-fast data rates with low latency, and are now becoming unlocked because of technological advances in computing and antennas,” he said.

“If the Commission approves my proposal next month, the United States will be the first country in the world to open up high-band spectrum for 5G networks and applications. And that’s damn important because it means U.S. companies will be first out of the gate.

Unlike some countries, we do not believe we should spend the next couple of years studying what 5G should be, how it should operate, and how to allocate spectrum, based on those assumptions. Turning innovators loose is far preferable to expecting committees and regulators to define the future. We won’t wait for the standards to be first developed in the sometimes arduous standards-setting process or in a government-led activity.

The 5G revolution will touch all corners of this country.

To make sure we have this connectivity with high-band spectrum will require a lot more small cells, which means a lot more antenna siting decisions by local governments. That’s why it’s important that the Commission has streamlined our environmental and historic preservation rules.”

Oppose Development of Spectrum Frontiers 5G on Health Grounds – Submitted by Ronald M. Powell, Ph.D.

I am a retired U.S. Government career scientist (Ph.D., Applied Physics, Harvard University, 1975).  During my Government career, I worked for the Executive Office of the President, the National Science Foundation, and the National Institute of Standards and Technology.  For those organizations, respectively, I addressed Federal research and development program evaluation, energy policy research, and measurement development in support of the electronics and electrical-equipment industries and the biomedical research community.  I currently interact with other scientists and with physicians around the world on the impact of electromagnetic fields on human health.

220 scientists from 41 nations submitted an international appeal to the United Nations and to the World Health Organization in May 2015.  These scientists seek improved protection of the public from harm from the radiation produced by many wireless sources, including “cellular and cordless phones and their base stations, Wi-Fi, broadcast antennas, smart meters, and baby monitors” among others.  Together, these scientists have published over 2000 peer-reviewed research papers on this subject.

Why is Spectrum Frontiers 5G so especially outrageous to the public?

It would greatly extend FCC’s current policy of the MANDATORY IRRADIATION OF THE PUBLIC without adequate prior study of the potential health impact and assurance of safety.

It would IRRADIATE EVERYONE , including the most vulnerable to harm from radiofrequency radiation:  pregnant women, unborn children, young children, teenagers, men of reproductive age, the elderly.

It would set a goal of irradiating all environments, including the insides of homes, whether single family homes, townhouses, or apartments, ending any remnant of the notion that “your home is your castle” in which you are supposed to be safe and have a measure of control of your environment.  Specifically, the proposed 5G technology would blast through walls and cribs just as the current wireless technologies do.

It would force cell antennas onto residential streets , bringing the threat even more up close and personal to the public.  It would totally ignore the rapidly growing international biomedical research literature that demonstrates that radiofrequency radiation has a host of adverse effects on human health (and animal, insect, and plant health, too) at levels far below the current FCC exposure guidelines.