My Account
In recent issues of Mahurangi Matters, an exchange has appeared between contributors on the health impacts of 5G radio frequency radiation (RFR). These exchanges are not unique to our local community but are appearing across New Zealand, Europe, USA, Australia and many other countries. Recently, several intelligent, informed and clear articles have appeared in New Zealand media. These include articles by Michelle Dickenson (Nanogirl) and a Herald business journalist. Also excellent articles have appeared in respected sources such as the BBC World website and in The Guardian.
These set out the same basic wave-physics principles, as well as reviewing the auditing of 5G by international health agencies. We will see many more authoritative media reports over the coming months.
To understand and make personal judgements about the nature and safety of 5G RFR, one needs to understand the basic wave-physics principles that differentiate between safe non-ionizing radiation (long radio waves, microwaves, infrared radiation and visible radiation) and damaging shortwave ionizing radiation such as X-rays or nuclear (gamma) radiation. We live with safe non-ionizing radiation in our homes, schools and businesses when we benefit from infrared radiation from radiant home heaters or open fires. The impacts of 5G radiation on health have been assessed by organisations with core responsibilities to monitor such health risks for the public, including the New Zealand Ministry of Health and the Institute of Environmental Science and Research (ESR), the World Health Organisation, Food and Drug Administration and so forth. The bottom line in all authoritative reports is there is no statistically significant clinical evidence for cancers or other health impacts arising from RFR. The impact of the recent rollout of 5G in Australian cities has been assessed as being similar to 4G radiation, which we have lived with for years. Radio waves simply do not have the energy to penetrate our skin or damage our DNA.
Regarding “5G Experts”: The local anti-5G voices invoke experts from fields of science that do not relate to radiation. Science is a very broad capability area of about 20 distinct disciplines. The central discipline in understanding 5G RFR is physics (or more precisely biophysics). Even a school-level appreciation of the physics of light is quite a good basis for understanding the nature of 5G radiation. “Experts” with backgrounds in physiology, environmental studies, general practice medicine and education and so on, but with no physics background (perhaps, even at school level), are not well qualified to be scientific commentators on 5G radiation. My own PhD field of research is in spectroscopy or the interaction of radiation with matter.
In any case, 5G will certainly happen in New Zealand next year. If the local community were to withdraw from both the next information age and the vast commercial, social and employment opportunities it presents (and I am quite confident it will not), then the future of the Rodney region for our young people would be very bleak indeed.
Professor Ralph Cooney
r.cooney@auckland.ac.nz
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