If you've ever wandered through a city you might have noticed tiny cell towers for 5G on street light poles. They look like little boxes, but they're actually broadcasting wireless signals from mobile providers to your mobile.
They are replacing larger, purpose-built cell towers. While they're less noticeable but they can still create problems for those who live nearby.
The Federal Communications Commission's Radiation Exposure Thresholds
The FCC's Radiation Exposure Thresholds define the safe limit at which one can expose to electromagnetic energy from wireless devices. The limits for exposure are based on research which show that the energy of RF can cause harm to health.
The rate of absorption called the specific absorption rate (SAR) is an indication of the amount of radiofrequency energy that is absorption by tissues. It's usually 1.6 milliwatts per kilogram spread over a kilogram of tissue.
But, since 5g operates at higher frequencies this could be able to cause greater energy intensity on the skin and other exposed body parts. This could lead to a wide range of possible harms, like the appearance of skin conditions such as dermatitis and skin cancer and cataracts.
Because of the potentially severe effects of 5g radiation, PSU has chosen to set a general localized limits on power density, which is 4mW/cm2 based on the average on 1cm2, and not exceeding 30 minutes for the entire 5G spectrum at 3000 GHz. This localized limit is in accordance with the peak SAR that is spatially averaged at 1.6 W/kg averaged over 1 g of tissue at 6 GHz.
The FCC's Maximum Exposure Thresholds
If you've ever operated a cell phone, then you're aware that a safe location from the tower should be at least 400 meters away. This is because the power of the transmission of the cell tower is significantly increased the further your location from the tower.
While this sounds like something that's good but the truth is that people living in close proximity to towers might be more vulnerable to health problems. For instance, a study conducted in 2014 in India discovered that those who lived within 50m of cell towers experienced much more health problems than those living further far from antennas.
However, this study also found that people who moved into areas farther away from cell towers noticed their symptoms improve within a couple of days. Studies have also demonstrated that exposure to extreme amounts of electromagnetic field radiofrequency (EMFs) could cause brain tumors, cancer as well as other health issues.
This is because RF radiation, used in wireless communication, can penetrate the human body's outer layer, the skin. This is important to understand since the skin serves as a barrier to protect against injury to the body, infection caused by pathogenic microorganisms and the entry of harmful substances. The skin is the most important organ in the human body, and is responsible for maintaining the integrity of other organs.
The FCC's Minimum Exposure Thresholds for the Minimum Exposure
The FCC's Minimum Exposure Thresholds rely on a variety of assumptions that aren't supported by scientific research. what is a safe distance from a 5g cell tower include the false belief that exposures to RF radiation are safe due to minimal absorption into body (i.e., tissue heating).
The assumption also ignores the greater penetration of ELF elements of modulated radio signals, as well as the effects of short bursts of heat generated by RF waves that are pulsed. These assumptions are not in line with current understanding of the biological effects of RF radiation. Therefore they shouldn't be relied upon for health-protection exposure guidelines.
Furthermore, the ICNIRP and FCC restrict their radiation limits for local peak SARs based on the peak frequency of absorption (psSAR) that is an inadequate dosimetric tool to determine the degree of radiation exposure. Particularly, psSAR is inaccurate for frequencies above 6 GHz. Additionally, psSAR hasn't been evaluated for RF radiation that is exposed to other environmental agents such like sunlight. what is a safe distance from a cell tower of RF radiations with different environmental agents may cause synergistic or antagonistic impacts. This could result in an increased risk of negative health effects. For what is a safe distance from a 5g cell tower , co-exposure to RF radiation with sunlight may cause an increase in the incidence of developing skin cancer and exacerbate other skin diseases such as acne.