5G and beyond

5G Networks Could Throw Weather Forecasting Into Chaos

If you had a choice between a better, faster cell phone signal and an accurate weather forecast, which would you pick? That’s the question facing federal officials as they decide whether to auction off more of the wireless spectrum or heed meteorologists who say that such a move could throw US weather forecasting into chaos.On Capitol Hill Thursday, NOAA’s acting chief, Neil Jacobs, said that interference from 5G wireless phones could reduce the accuracy of forecasts by 30 percent. That’s equivalent, he said, to the quality of weather predictions four decades ago. “If you look back in time to see when our forecast scale was roughly 30 percent less than today, it was 1980,” Jacobs told the House Subcommittee on the Environment.That reduction would give coastal residents two or three fewer days to prepare for a hurricane, and it could lead to incorrect predictions of the storms’ final path to land, Jacobs said. “This is really important,” he told ranking committee member Frank Lucas (R-Oklahoma)…SNIP

Calls for review of 5G technology amid health concerns in Auckland New Zealand

By Ripu Bhatia May 14 2019
Excerpt
The latest cellular network technology 5G could pose a risk to people’s health, critics say.

Waiheke Local Board chairwoman Cath Handley has written to Auckland Council’s environment and community committee calling for an independent safety assessment of the fifth-generation service. “The board’s request is that a precautionary approach should be adopted until evidence of effects is fully documented and well understood,’ she wrote. “As the largest and most densely populated city in the country, Auckland should take a leadership role in ensuring the safety of the proposed network.”University of Auckland psychology professor Susan Pockett said radio frequency emissions were linked to many health problems. “Approximately 600 peer-reviewed research reports from a range of international scientists show us that radio frequency radiation is linked to infertility, diabetes, various kinds of cancer and psychiatric disorders,” she said. “The present situation is already bad and adding 5G on top of it will hugely increase the amount of radiation to which everyone is exposed and make the whole situation much worse.” A 2018 article by Pockett in the New Zealand Medical Journal said evidence existed that radio frequency emissions at some intensities could impact people’s health. “The biological effects of radio frequency emissions are clearly complicated, but there is no longer any reasonable doubt that under some circumstances, levels common in the present environment do have harmful biological effects.” The paper concluded until more was known about the effects, a “precautionary approach” in the rollout of cellphone and WiFi technology was justified. Overseas, more than 200 scientists have written to the United Nations and the World Health Organization expressing concerns about potential health risks from the technology…SNIP

Statement from Ronald Powell PhD on 5G Networks (amended from an earlier posted version)

The following statement from Ronald Powell PhD was written to oppose two bills before the Maryland General Assembly in the state of Maryland, USA, but the points raised are relevant for the rollout of 5G networks regardless of location.****************************Ronald M. Powell, Ph.D  /  February 25, 20195G and its small cell towers threaten public health.  Implications for HB654/SB937 and HB1020/SP713 before the Maryland General Assembly.This message describes, as briefly as I can, the answers to the questions below.  Kindly read what interests you.  I present these comments as a retired U.S. Government career scientist (Ph.D. in Applied Physics, Harvard University).* Why is control of 5G secondary to stopping its deployment? *Why are both HB654/SB937 and HB1020/SP713 fatally flawed? *What makes Maryland a leader in MANDATING exposure to harmful radiofrequency radiation? *What is Maryland’s implicit policy on exposure to radiofrequency radiation? *Why is human health so vulnerable to harm from radiofrequency radiation? *What is the evidence of the harm caused by radiofrequency radiation? *What are the advantages and disadvantages of 5G*What should our telecommunications goals be? *Who am I?…SNIP

Is 5G Worth the Risks?

In recent months there’s been a lot of talk about 5G – the next generation of wireless technology. 5G is being touted as a necessary step to the ‘internet of things’ – a world in which our refrigerators alert us when we’re low on milk, our baby’s diapers tell us when they need to be changed, and Netflix is available everywhere, all the time. But what we’re not hearing is that evidence-based studies worldwide have clearly established the harmful effects of human exposure to pulsed radiofrequency radiation from cell towers, cell phones and other devices – and that 5G will make the problem exponentially worse…SNIP

Are community concerns over the 5G network rollout based on unfounded anxiety or valid evidence?’

Published on Daruisz Leszczynsik’s blog,Between a Rock and a Hard place, a paper by Don Maisch Phd …5th generation (5G) wireless technology, as the name indicates, is the next generation wireless communication network from 4G and 4G LTE. Once fully implemented it will predominantly operate in the millimetre (mm) radiofrequency band which will allow much higher data transfer necessary for driverless vehicles, the Internet of Things (IoT), faster video downloads as well as other applications, including military. The downside of 5G mmWave, however, is that the signals do not penetrate objects readily such as buildings and foliage, in comparison to the lower frequencies. This necessitates a far denser network of 5G small cell antennas which will be mounted on power poles, light poles, street furniture, bus shelters, etc. which in many cases will be close to homes, workplaces and public areas. In some cases internal antennas in buildings will also be used.  This will result in higher chronic radiofrequency exposures to humans in these areas. The high number of small cells needed for an effective 5G network is causing community disquiet and that, combined with many scientific unknowns about the possible biological effects of prolonged exposure to mm waves, is resulting in increasing community opposition in Australia and internationally. As community opposition is most likely going to increase as 5G infrastructure continues to be rolled out nationally, the question arises: Is this opposition to 5G warranted or not?..SNIP

New report on 5G implementation for the European Parliament mentions “unacceptable levels of human exposure to electromagnetic radiation”

This in-depth analysis was prepared by Policy Department A at the request of the ITRE Committee for the European Parliament. It compares 5G deployment in the EU with other leading economies – the USA, China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore and Taiwan. On a range of indicators, the EU compares well. However, this is not a short-term race. 5G is more complex than previous wireless technologies and should be considered as a long-term project to solve technical challenges and develop a clear business case…SNIP… One aspect, for example, that is not well understood today is the unpredictable propagation patterns that could result in unacceptable levels of human exposure to electromagnetic radiation..SNIP

The new global arms race: 5G

From the Washington Post, republished in South China Morning Post, April 4, 2019

The six ex-commanders bluntly said Chinese 5G equipment risked espionage and disruptive cyberattacks on military operations, and ‘the time for action is now’
The statement was timed to the opening of a Nato summit of foreign ministers in Washington

Excerpt

Former Pentagon leaders have joined current chiefs to warn about the risks to future US military operations posed by allies in Europe and Asia using Chinese technology in their 5G wireless telecommunications networks.

In a statement Wednesday, six former officials noted that the immense bandwidth and super-high speeds of the coming 5G systems – up to 100 times faster than current 4G platforms – will make them attractive for the US military to use to share data with allies or transfer information in combat…SNIP