• 13 AUG 19

    2 articles: 1)The Austrian (not Australian) Parliament asks for evaluation of 5G and health – do not hold your breath / 2) Canberra (Australia) Citynews on 5G deployment

    From the blog of Dariusz Leszczynski Excerpt: Recently, telecompaper has informed that the Austrian parliament has commissioned a study into the health effects of 5G networks due to concerns among the public that the new generation of mobile services could pose risks from increased radiation exposure. The Advisory Council on Technology Assessment of the Austrian Parliament has decided to obtain expertise in the field and appointed a consortium of the Institute for Technology Assessment of the Austrian Academy of Sciences and the Austrian Institute of Technology to conduct a study. The research institutes already provide the parliament with scientific advice on many topics. The study is expected to be ready by January 2020, providing an overview of the latest research on the topic. The report will be published on the parliament’s website.”At first, the reader of these news might be encouraged by seeing that the Austrian Parliament addresses concerns about the potential health risks of exposures to 5G-emitted radiation. However, as always, the “devil is in the details”. Reading description of this project, available on the website of the Institute of Technology Assessment of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, provides the proverbial “bucket of cold water”. It appears that the “evaluation” will likely be nothing new but recap of the existing mantra…SNIP

    In other words just more of the Procrustean Approach….

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    • 11 AUG 19

    FCC Chairman Ajit Pai loses another court case as judges overturn 5G deregulation

    One of Ajit Pai’s attempts to eliminate regulation of 5G deployment has been overturned by federal judges.The Federal Communications Commission last year approved an order that “exempted most small cell construction from two kinds of previously required review: historic-preservation review under the National Historic Preservation Act (NHPA) and environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA),” federal judges said in their decision partially overturning the order.The FCC claimed its deregulation of small cells was necessary to spur deployment of 5G wireless networks. But the commission was sued by the United Keetoowah Band of Cherokee Indians in Oklahoma, the Blackfeet Tribe, and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). The FCC order was of particular interest to tribal groups because it affected construction on “sites of religious and cultural importance to federally recognized Indian Tribes,” the judges noted. “The Order also effectively reduced Tribes’ role in reviewing proposed construction of macrocell towers and other wireless facilities that remain subject to cultural and environmental review.”The FCC’s opponents argued that the elimination of historic-preservation and environmental review was arbitrary and capricious, that it violated both the NHPA and NEPA, and that the changes to tribes’ role in reviewing construction was arbitrary and capricious. A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit issued its unanimous ruling today.Judges wrote that Pai’s order “does not justify the Commission’s determination that it was not in the public interest to require review of small cell deployments. In particular, the Commission failed to justify its confidence that small cell deployments pose little to no cognizable religious, cultural, or environmental risk, particularly given the vast number of proposed deployments and the reality that the Order will principally affect small cells that require new construction.”The FCC also failed to “adequately address possible harms of deregulation and benefits of environmental and historic-preservation review,” which means the commission’s “deregulation of small cells is thus arbitrary and capricious,” judges concluded…SNIP

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    • 31 JUL 19

    Response: 5G and Wireless Risks to Public Health

    Excerpt

    From Health Central New ZealandDr. Pri Bandara and Dr. Julie McCredden from Oceania Radiofrequency Scientific Advisory Association (ORSAA) weigh in on a series of recent articles published on Health Central around the effects of 5G.July 25, 2019There has been a lot of hype around 5G and there is some misinformation in this information-overloaded time we live in. We contend the article by Katie Chadwick-Smith titled “Response: Claims that 5G is damaging to our health are misleading” in reply to a previous article by Dr. Tracy Chandler is riddled with false statements and is grossly misleading.Consider the following claim by Chadwick-Smith: “The link Dr Chandler provides as evidence for the relationship between cellphones and cancer is nothing more than a collection of presentations and newspaper articles based on suppositions and wishful thinking for those prone to conspiracy theories.” This seems strange considering that Dr. Chandler’s article made no such reference to cell phones and cancer specifically but instead referred to a vast collection of peer-reviewed studies on the website maintained by Dr. Joel M. Moskowitz, Director of the Center for Family and Community Health at School of Public Health, University of California, Berkeley. It appears that Chadwick-Smith did not bother to check anything before making this attempt to discredit Dr. Chandler’s article. As cell phone use and cancer is raised, the reality is far from what Chadwick-Smith claims. The scientific evidence actually shows an increased risk. For example, a review that collated data from 24 studies in a large meta-analysis which included 26,846 brain tumour cases and 50,013 healthy controls, showed a significantly higher risk for those with mobile phone use over 10 years.The Oceania Radiofrequency Scientific Advisory Association (ORSAA) is the only independent (hence without conflicts of interest) scientific organization operating in the Australia-New Zealand region investigating the health impact of RF-EMR. Our database is now the world’s largest categorized database of peer-reviewed studies in this field of scientific study which is freely available for anyone at www.orsaa.org. The scientists at ORSAA are volunteering to establish the much-needed evidence-based approach to risk assessment in this highly contentious area due to strong financial conflicts of interest competing with public safety….SNIP

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    • 23 JUL 19

    Fake news on 5G from New York Times Science Desk (two articles)

    1) A Fact-Free Hit on a 5G Critic Fabricating History on the New York Times Science Desk
    From Louis Slesin, Microwave News
    Excerpt: Last Tuesday, the New York Times devoted most of the front page of its science section to Bill Broad’s latest attack on those who challenge the dogma that wireless radiation is absolutely safe.“The 5G Health Hazard That Isn’t” is the catchy headline of the Web version of his article. It’s followed by “How one scientist and his inaccurate chart led to unwarranted fears of wireless technology.”There’s a major problem with Broad’s reporting. The key facts are wrong.Please take a look at the critique that I just posted on the Microwave News website.

    2) The Miseducation of America on 5G: The New York Times Gets It Spectacularly Wrong
    Devra Davis, the Environmental Health Trust
    Excerpt: When William J. Broad, a Pulitzer-Prize winning New York Times science writer, strangely mangles information on the dangers of 5G, this plays right into the hands of those determined to advance this never-tested technology without serious examination of its long-term impact on human health and the environment.The recent headline of the NYTimes trumpeted 5G as the “health hazard that isn’t.” Not so fast. A close examination of claims in that article indicates that it is time for a reset on the march to the latest wireless technology as the consequences could not be more monumental…..SNIP

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    • 20 JUL 19

    Swiss magazine reports first 5G injuries in Geneva.

    Published in L’illustre, Thursday 18 July 2019″

    L’Illustré is a French-language weekly consumer magazine published in Lausanne, Switzerland. The circulation of L’Illustré was 76,697 copies in 2014 and its readership was 338,000 in the second half of 2014.

    Excerpt

    Since 5G antennas were installed near their home in the heart of Geneva, these residents of the same area suffer from various health problems. Are they victims of a technology whose dangers were not sufficiently tested? A doctor and member of parliament speaks out.Gathered in the apartment of one of the two, on the fifth floor of a building in the centre of Geneva, these residents of the same area look at each other. What they have in common is insomnia, tinnitus, headaches. And a lot of unanswered questions. The youngest, Johan Perruchoud, 29, has lived there for 11 years and is not the type to cultivate any sort of hatred of invasive technology. He is a healthy young man, active and positive, who has just returned from four years in New York and makes finely crafted videos and films for the media or for individuals, often working in his room with his computer.”Like in a microwave oven”For him and for his neighbour it all started in April. “I’ve never had a problem with Wi- Fi or any of that and never had problems sleeping – and then suddenly I had trouble falling asleep. In particular at home I felt – how can I put it? – like I was in a microwave. I didn’t feel good in the house, as if I was surrounded by ghosts.” When he looked on Facebook and on the website of the Confederation, he saw that three 5G antennas had been put into service nearby and that other people were complaining of identical problems, headaches, tiredness. “Was it psychological? I don’t know. But for the first time, although I have never had earaches while composing my music, my ears started whistling. It woke me up at night. All of this was unusual.”…SNIP

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    • 05 JUL 19

    Dr Karl – Misleading and Wrong Information and a much deeper problem in the selection of experts.

    News release from the Oceania Radiofrequency Scientific Advisory Association (ORSAA)
    Excerpt: 4/7/2019​We have seen lots of “Fake News” from various media and online sources over the last few years. Now the Australian trusted public radio station the ABC has created “Fake Information”. Dr Karl, the ABCs trusted science communicator, has made several recent pronouncements on ABC radio station JJJ. He has claimed that concerns that are being raised about an untested 5G rollout are ‘hysteria’. Dr Karl’s talks begin with a clear and correct explanation of the EMF spectrum, but then goes on to make incorrect and misleading statements. He declares that only the very high non-ionising frequencies can cause cancer. This statement has been falsified by the recent NTP study.One of our members, Dr Richard Cullen, who has a PhD in electrical engineering, with many years of experience in IT has evaluated Dr Karl’s recent pronouncements. We have edited transcripts below. ..SNIP

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    • 26 JUN 19

    ORSAA on 5G misinformation

    From the ORSAA Newsletter ARPANSA Who is misleading Who 24/6/2019 Excerpt It has come to our attention that ARPANSA has made a number of statements relating to misinformation about Australia”s 5G network on their website, our assessment you can download below. One needs to question who is actually providing misinformation? First, we have a

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    • 22 JUN 19

    5G: Eco-Energy or Energy Monster?

    As part of the forthcoming “Connected Hobart; a Smart City forum” a central feature of the logo for the event is “Eco-Energy”. Now this term is defined on the ICI Global website as: “Natural and clean energy solutions for a green environment protecting ecology”. So, it would seem to be a no-brained that Hobart’s “Eco-Energy” should mean reduced greenhouse gas emissions with more efficient 5G technology, and overall reduced energy usage.This may be the case for Tasmania with its hydro and planned pumped hydro and wind farms, but certainly not for the rest of Australia. According to Origin Energy, Of Australia’s overall energy supply, 73% comes from coal, 13% from natural gas, 7% from hydro power, and 7% from renewables. So, 86% of Australia’s energy usage is from greenhouse gas emitters, coal and gas.Will the planned nationwide rollout of 5G networks reduce Australia’s greenhouse emissions with “Eco-Energy” 5G smart city technology? Unfortunately it looks like being the opposite, according to a new 5G report by Vertiv, and the technology analyst firm 451 Research…SNIP

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    • 20 JUN 19

    Connected Hobart Public Forum, 26 June

    For any local folks on this list, the Hobart City Council is holding an information session on Hobart’s smart city plan. Should be interesting, especially if the local Stop 5G group shows up. My opinion on the initial Hobart smart city strategy in August 2018 is here. Don *****************************************   Connected Hobart Public Forum Help

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    • 09 JUN 19

    Ditch the GPS. It’s ruining your brain. ( plus an article “Forget Self-Driving Cars. Bring Back the Stick Shift” )

    The following article in the Washington Post has interesting implications for the future of today’s society as we enter the world of 5G and the Internet of Things (IoT), where more and more of our thinking, and most importantly, our children’s, is done for us by our devices. How will, what has been called the Google Effect, change they way we think and our ability to think independently of our devices? A shrinking brain perhaps?… From the Washington Post By M.R. O’Connor June 5 Excerpts: M.R. O’Connor is a journalist who writes about science, technology and ethics, and is the author, most recently, of “Wayfinding: The Science and Mystery of How Humans Navigate the World.”It has become the most natural thing to do: get in the car, type a destination into a smartphone, and let an algorithm using GPS data show the way. Personal GPS-equipped devices entered the mass market in only the past 15 or so years, but hundreds of millions of people now rarely travel without them. These gadgets are extremely powerful, allowing people to know their location at all times, to explore unknown places and to avoid getting lost.But they also affect perception and judgment. When people are told which way to turn, it relieves them of the need to create their own routes and remember them. They pay less attention to their surroundings. And neuroscientists can now see that brain behavior changes when people rely on turn-by-turn directions. In a study published in Nature Communications in 2017, researchers asked subjects to navigate a virtual simulation of London’s Soho neighborhood and monitored their brain activity, specifically the hippocampus, which is integral to spatial navigation. Those who were guided by directions showed less activity in this part of the brain than participants who navigated without the device. “The hippocampus makes an internal map of the environment and this map becomes active only when you are engaged in navigating and not using GPS,” Amir-Homayoun Javadi, one of the study’s authors, told me.The hippocampus is crucial to many aspects of daily life. It allows us to orient in space and know where we are by creating cognitive maps. It also allows us to recall events from the past, what is known as episodic memory. And, remarkably, it is the part of the brain that neuroscientists believe gives us the ability to imagine ourselves in the future.Studies have long shown the hippocampus is highly susceptible to experience. (London’s taxi drivers famously have greater gray-matter volume in the hippocampus as a consequence of memorizing the city’s labyrinthine streets.) Meanwhile, atrophy in that part of the brain is linked to devastating conditions, including post-traumatic stress disorder and Alzheimer’s disease. Stress and depression have been shown to dampen neurogenesis – the growth of new neurons – in the hippocampal circuit.What isn’t known is the effect of GPS use on hippocampal function when employed daily over long periods of time. Javadi said the conclusions he draws from recent studies is that “when people use tools such as GPS, they tend to engage less with navigation. Therefore, brain area responsible for navigation is less used, and consequently their brain areas involved in navigation tend to shrink.”.. SNIP

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    • 04 JUN 19

    Dariusz Leszczynski: ‘Brief Opinion on 5G and health

    From Leszczynski’s blog: between a Rock and a Hard Place, May 31, 2019
    Excerpt
    […The below presented brief opinion is not a comprehensive review of the issue but opinion pointing towards few of the important issues associated with the deployment of the 5G technology…]The currently ongoing deployment of the 5th generation of the wireless communication technology (5G) is being met with great enthusiasm by the telecommunication industry and national governments and general public. However, there is also some resistance from the part of the population in various locations around the globe. The opposition towards deployment of the 5G is caused by the uncertainty whether radiation emitted by the 5G networks and devices will have any health effects on human health and environmental impact on fauna and flora. Author of this ‘Brief Opinion’ considers the rapid deployment of the 5G technology as premature, in the context of the very limited scientific research on effects of low level exposures to sub-millimeter- and millimeter waves, as expressed e.g. in final points of conclusions of the invited lectures: (SNIP)

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    • 24 MAY 19

    Can 5G phased array antennas generate Brillouin precursors?

    As published on Dariusz Leszczynski’s blog Between a Rock and a Hard PlaceBelow is the next in a series of Guest Blogs on BRHP. The opinions expressed in this Guest Blog are of Don Maisch himself. Publication of these opinions in BRHP does not imply that BRHP automatically agrees with or endorses these opinions. Publication of this, and other Guest Blogs, facilitates an open debate and free exchange of opinions on wireless technology and health. . . . In early 2002 the New York based technical publication, Microwave News published an examination of a rather arcane topic: Brillouin precursors. The issue at that time was non-ionising radiation from the phased array PAVE PAWS radar facility at Cape Cod , Massachusetts, USA. A Brillouin precursor is a very fast pulse of radiation, which when it enters the human body, may generate a burst of energy that can travel much deeper than predicted by conventional models. . . SNIP

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    • 23 MAY 19

    Watch out for Tesla’s autonomous cars and drunk drivers

    One of the prime reasons for the 5G rollout is its supposed ability to make a world of autonomous vehicles a reality by removing the imperfect human element. Well, so far, Tesla’s efforts to create the perfect driverless car are not going so well, according to Consumer reports. It seems that Tesla’s Autopilot artificial intelligence is on a par with a drunk driver way over the limit…

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    • 18 MAY 19

    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

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    • 17 MAY 19

    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

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    • 15 MAY 19

    An example of bias in science reporting: 5G partnership between the New York Times and Verizon.

    From the CHEscience posting by Deborah E Moore, PhD. Executive Director, Second Look: To anyone who has any doubts about the NYT unethical connection with Telecom, here is an excerpt of the transcript from a January 2019 report on the 2019 Consumer Electronics Show on the Verizon website. The whole article can be found here: https://www.verizon.com/about/news/hans-vestberg-keynotes-2019-consumer-electronics-showOf course — a movie on 5G. Of course on 4G it takes you three to four minutes with a 90 minute video or movie it’s going to take you 10 seconds when you have ultra wideband. That’s a use case. But that’s to limit your — that’s not to limit yourself what you can do with it because there’s so much more you can do when you have that type of speed and through-put it’s a quantum leap compared to what we have today. I asked two iconic American companies to talk about how they can use it and how they view 5G. Very different from thinking about that you can download quicker. Because this is how we need to challenge ourselves to use these currencies to actually create something very new and transformative in the world we live in today. So the first iconic American company we have is the New York Times. I have the pleasure of inviting to the stage Mark Thompson, the CEO of New York Times. Mark, please come up on the stage. (Applause)…SNIP

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    • 13 MAY 19

    Is the 5G health effects issue just a sneaky Russian plot to damage America’s 5G rollout? The New York Times thinks so.

    That’s right folks, according to a New York Times article written by American science journalist, William Broad “Your 5G Phone Won’t Hurt You. But Russia Wants You to Think Otherwise”. Now, in Australia, 5G community concerns are trying to be dismissed by the promoters of the technology as just a result of media misinformation and needless worry, but in the the U.S., William Broad brings in the Russians, suggesting that any evidence on possible adverse effects from 5G technology is coming from Russia Today America (RT America), a global television news network based in Moscow, Russia and funded by the Russian government. It is no surprise that the Russian Government, using its propaganda arm, RT America, would like to spread fear amongst the American public and perhaps delay the rollout of 5G in the US. That’s what they are paid to do. HOWEVER for William Broad to then dismiss all evidence of 5G hazards as just Russian propaganda shows his own bias in scientific (mis)understanding of the issue. Understandable if he was a science advisor for President Trump but not for a science journalist writing for the prestigious New York Times. Read on….

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    • 09 MAY 19

    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

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    • 05 MAY 19

    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

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    • 25 APR 19

    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

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