5G

Shaping Freiburg Digitally! was the title of a workshop last November. The officials asked their citizens to help describe and subsequently determine Freiburg's digital future, a laudable undertaking. Here are the guiding principles ...

... and here were the topics to be discussed at the workshop in groups:

Red Baron went to the workshop and attended the working group on education, science, and culture, only to suffer from a massive presence of high school teachers asking for faster Internet and demanding free tablets for their schools.

The official chairpersons of the working groups had to draft proposals for the city council's attention. These papers were to be discussed and refined at a later date.

So in July of this year, during a meeting called "Check-Up," printed copies of the drafts were pinned to the wall and studied by the persons present. We were asked to garnish the papers with colored stickers annotating the content and style of the documents.

Once all comments had been glued to our draft on education, science, and culture, the discussion started. This turned out to be tedious for one lady who kept harping on the harmful biological effects of the high frequencies of the new 5G mobile standard.

My knowledge so far was that of a mere thermal effect on human tissue. I was seconded in my view by another physicist present. The lady continued to pest, eventually admitting that she was a homeopath. At that point, I was carried away, remarking, "That explains everything." Back home, I decided to give the 5th Generation a closer look.

According to experts on the biological effects of electromagnetic radiation, radio waves become "safer" at higher frequencies and therefore are not more dangerous than those of lower frequencies. Notabene, this is not true for extremely high-frequency radiation, as there are UV, X-, or gamma rays. They indeed interact differently with the human body and pose a health risk.

The skin acts as a barrier for radio waves in the 5G frequency band, shielding the internal organs from exposure, including the brain. "This kind of radiation doesn't penetrate," says Christopher M. Collins, professor of radiology at New York University, who studies the effect of high-frequency electromagnetic waves on humans.

This is why in cities, a 5G service requires the placement of many antenna towers because walls, buildings, rain, leaves, and other objects will block the high-frequency signals. The human skin absorbs 5G signals delivering thermal energy to the surrounding tissue.

Imagine all those people panicked by angst, throwing their mobile phones away
(Found on Facebook).

However, the adversaries of 5G believe in the damaging effects of any electromagnetic fields on cell membranes, on mitochondria - the energy suppliers of cells - and even on the DNA of body cells resulting in mutations, a weakened immune system, and ultimately an increased risk of cancer.

The City of Freiburg placed us in immediate danger
by offering free WiFi4Fr in the conference room.

The authorities, the Ministry of Health in Stuttgart and the Ministry of Environment in Berlin, both led by Green ministers, are waving their hands. "There are no health-relevant effects below the current limits," assures the Ministry of Health in Stuttgart.

Berlin's Ministry of Environment confirms that according to the present state of knowledge, there is no scientifically loadable reference to the endangerment of humans, animals, and plants by high-frequency electromagnetic fields below the official limits.

The editor-in-chief of the quarterly journal Reviews on Environmental Health, Dr. Carpenter, wrote in 2013, "The rapid increase in the use of cellphones increases the risk of cancer, male infertility, and neurobehavioral abnormalities." However, mainstream scientists continue to see no evidence of harm from cellphone radio waves so far.

"If phones are linked to cancer, we'd expect to see a marked uptick," David Robert Grimes, a cancer researcher at the University of Oxford, recently wrote in The Guardian. "Yet we do not."

However, Dr. Carpenter defended his high-frequency view. "You have all this evidence that cellphone radiation penetrates the brain," he said. Still, then he conceded after some discussion that the increasingly high frequencies of 5G could, in fact, have a difficult time entering the human body and acknowledged, "maybe it's not that big a deal."

In Germany, the tone has become rougher concerning the health effects of 5G frequencies. Scientists are declared "counterfeiters" and "liars," politicians "ignorant," or "corporate lackeys."

Once again, German angst is the driving force behind such tantrums, as the head of the Fraunhofer Institute for Physical Measurement Techniques (IPM) in Freiburg, Karsten Buse, suspects. He calls the uproar the Nocebo effect, the opposite of the placebo effect, "I'm afraid it's hurting me - so it's hurting me" and continues, "The word radiation alone reminds people of X-rays or irradiation by radioactive materials."

Buse is an expert in the field. At the beginning of his academic career, he dealt with people's fear of electrosmog when they meant high-voltage lines or post office transmitter masts. "Angst is a health burden; you have to take it seriously," Buse concedes. But he also says, "I regard the fear that is spread as completely exaggerated. Many millions of mobile phone users - some already for a long time - undergo a daily self-experiment using their mobile phones; this should have been reflected epidemiologically, but it hasn't, especially not in the cancer registry. Non-ionizing radiation cannot alter individual atoms or molecules, destroy genetic material, or cause cancer."

The critics, however, want a moratorium, a halt to 5G expansion until further studies bring clarity. An Action Alliance, "Freiburg 5G-free," intends to achieve this through a residents' meeting for Freiburg.

Martin Horn only slightly looking enthusiastic (©BZ).

Here members of the Action Alliance present Mayor Martin Horn a list of signatures requesting a residents' meeting where the endangerment of the population by mobile radio waves, especially in connection with 5G, should be discussed. They had to collect 2500 signatures and easily reached the quorum: 3875 names are on their list. According to the city administration, the residents' meeting will take place on 13 November.

Elsewhere concerned citizens have already achieved a moratorium, e.g., in the canton of Geneva. In April, Belgians stopped a 5G pilot project for the EU capital Brussels.

Regarding the health effects of cell phones, Red Baron sees those coming up in a couple of years in future generations. Young mothers pushing their strollers with one hand while texting with the other, teens glued to the screens watching the latest music video, younger children playing on their mobile phones shoot-em-up games, they all bend their necks excessively.

Medical students become orthopaedists! A job with an assured future.

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