(TNS) A group of Mitchell residents is urging city leaders to ban 5G technology, claiming it poses “serious health risks,” but some of the city’s top elected officials say they’re not concerned.
Speaking before a packed audience at Mitchell City Council on Monday, Beth Bauer and Sonia VanEldeWyck argued that 5G is “annoying to millions of people who live in cities where this wireless technology exists.”
Bauer and Van Eldewick are among a number of Mitchell residents who have voiced concerns about 5G, arguing that radiation exposure from radio frequency (RF) electromagnetic fields emitted by 5G small cell sites and cell phones is causing health problems ranging from cancer to ADHD.
“You’re all very concerned about the health of your community, and so are we, and I would ask you to really think twice about bringing more 5G to your community,” Van Eldewick said at Monday’s city council meeting, noting that Mitchell has several 5G cell towers. “I am in good health, although I began experiencing tremors in my legs and hands three years ago. Symptoms include lack of motivation, anxiety, depression and memory loss.”
The City Council gave concerned citizen groups the opportunity to discuss 5G at a meeting on Monday, but no action was taken. After citizens expressed concerns about 5G, Mitchell City Council President Kevin McArdle said it was “not something to be concerned about,” citing information from Verizon that said 5G is harmless to humans.
A group of Mitchell residents has expressed concerns about health risks posed by 5G, but Mayor Bob Everson said Mitchell does not have 5G technology.
“Anyone who wants to install a 5G small cell facility, including a mobile phone provider or private company, has to apply for and get a permit from the city, and in Mitchell they haven’t received one yet,” Everson said.
Bauer and Van Eldewick dispute the city’s claim that 5G isn’t yet available in Mitchell, and they claim that handheld radio frequency meters have detected 5G in parts of the city.
Everson noted that cell phone companies’ existing 4G towers could potentially have 5G transmitters installed because they’re not subject to the same regulations for installing 5G small cell facilities, but he and other city officials have not seen evidence that cell phone companies have installed 5G on 4G towers owned by cell phone companies in Mitchell.
“My phone has never shown me the option for 5G connectivity anywhere in the city. The FCC regulates cell phone companies and their existing towers, while the city regulates new small cell 5G installations,” Everson said. “From what I have researched and learned, 5G is not a concern for me. We wanted to give the group an opportunity to discuss the subject at their request, and they gave the full 10 minutes to present.”
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is the agency that regulates 5G health safety standards and determines what levels of radio frequency radiation in wireless technology are safe for humans. Since the introduction of 5G technology in 2018, major mobile phone companies have been touting the fastest download speeds, but the FCC has maintained its position that current radio frequency radiation exposure limits are “protective of the public health.”
Bauer, who moved to Mitchell from Minneapolis because of radiation poisoning he blames on 5G, criticized the FCC’s 5G regulation, arguing that the agency has not presented any long-term studies or evidence that 5G is safe. He said the FCC is ignoring “the scientific evidence that 5G is harmful.” In Bauer’s words, the FCC and the mobile phone companies deploying 5G “must bear the burden of proof that new wireless technology is safe.”
“In 2019, the FCC admitted that it had not conducted 5G safety studies. Why did the FCC know this information existed and ignore it? The FCC is a captured agency because the majority of its funding comes from the very sector it is supposed to regulate,” Bauer said, pointing to mobile phone companies as a source of funding for the FCC.
Everson said Verizon representatives were invited to participate in the 5G discussion at Monday’s council meeting, but none attended. Instead, Verizon officials submitted documents to the council denying claims that 5G is harmful and hasn’t been studied.
“Scientists in the U.S. and around the world have been studying RF energy for decades,” the Verizon document states. “In December 2019, by unanimous and bipartisan decision, the FCC confirmed that the same radio frequency safety standards that apply to previous wireless technologies (3G and 4G) apply to 5G.”
Sioux Falls was the first city in the state to deploy 5G technology, and Mitchell is in a position to welcome 5G miniature towers into its community after the City Council approved an ordinance in 2019 paving the way for wireless technology companies to deploy 5G towers in Mitchell, a move that many cities have made in recent years.
Bauer and Van Eldewick recently purchased a handheld electromagnetic field meter and claim that it detected radiation levels from some 5G phones that were more than 100 times the level the FCC considers safe.
Concerned Citizens groups pointed to a recent court case that ruled against the FCC over its decision not to review radio frequency emission guidelines dating back to 1996 as another important piece of evidence the FCC should consider in banning 5G technology.
The lawsuit against the FCC was brought by children’s health defense groups, and a U.S. appeals court ruled last year that the FCC “has not provided a reasonable explanation for its determination that its guidelines adequately protect against harmful effects from exposure to radiofrequency radiation that are unrelated to cancer.”
Concerns about radio frequency radiation levels from cell phones are not new, and in recent years several independent laboratories have conducted tests to determine whether cell phone manufacturers are complying with FCC safety guidelines.
The maximum Specific Absorption Rate (SAR) exposure that the FCC considers “safe” for cell phones is set at 1.6 watts per kilogram. The FCC says it requires all cell phone manufacturers to ensure their wireless phones comply with this limit, but an independent laboratory in California recently tested an iPhone 11 Pro and said the phone had an exposure rate of 3.8 watts per kilogram. The California-based RF Exposure Lab said the phone was placed 5 millimeters away from a mannequin that resembled human tissue.
“I’ve used my meter to test other people’s 5G phones, and they’ve maxed out my meter, 100 times what scientists consider safe,” Bauer said. “The FCC is using 1996 guidelines, which means they’re using data on wireless safety from before 1996. They’ve simply ignored 11,000 pages of scientific evidence since then that proves wireless communication is unsafe.”
For 4G, Mitchell’s primary wireless technology, most mobile devices operate at frequencies below 6 gigahertz (GHz), but 5G uses frequencies in the millimeter wave band between 28 GHz and 300 GHz. For all radio frequencies, 300 GHz is the international maximum level set to avoid adverse health effects.
“The step from 4G to 5G is astronomically high because it uses much shorter wavelengths than 4G and is known to be much more harmful to the human body,” Bauer said. “Verizon and AT&T use frequencies between 30 and 300 gigahertz. [for 5G]This is almost three times more than 4G usage.”
In documents filed with the city, Verizon again denied claims that millimeter waves used in 5G technology are harmful to humans, saying, “5G technology, which uses millimeter wave spectrum, is subject to the same FCC safety standards that apply to all frequencies in the spectrum used for wireless communications. Therefore, 5G networks that use millimeter wave spectrum are not only useful but must meet FCC safety standards.”
While some city leaders aren’t concerned about the health effects of 5G, at the very least, a group of Mitchell residents is urging the City Council to take similar action regarding 5G technology as several other city and state agencies.
While 5G technology is available in every state in the U.S., some state officials in other states have been cautious about its rollout. Officials in a number of states, including California, Maine, New Hampshire, and Oregon, have taken steps to tightly regulate 5G.
Some California cities, such as Mill Valley and Los Altos, have imposed restrictions on placing 5G small cell antennas near residential areas.
After the Los Altos City Council rejected 13 applications from Verizon and AT&T to install 5G, the companies filed a lawsuit against the city, but a decision has yet to be made.
The New Hampshire state government has even gone so far as to appoint a commission to study the health effects of 5G.
“You can put 5G in your house or in an internet cube, but there’s no way to compensate your neighbours,” Van Eldewick said. “Insurance companies are not covering the long-term damage from the electromagnetic radiation these towers emit, and insurance white papers are likening 5G to asbestos.”
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