1G, 2G, 3G, 5
May 4, 2020 12:35 PM Subscribe
Can you suggest an easy, digestible, reputable source, explaining what 5G is and what its effects could be?
A 5G tower just went up in my area and various neighbours are getting squirly about "pollution" and other vague concerns. Would love to post an article that would calm the waves. Literacy levels vary, so something digestible would be good. Thanks!
A 5G tower just went up in my area and various neighbours are getting squirly about "pollution" and other vague concerns. Would love to post an article that would calm the waves. Literacy levels vary, so something digestible would be good. Thanks!
In case it helps, the Guardian newspaper recently put up a video explaining why the 5G coronavirus conspiracy theories are false.
posted by EXISTENZ IS PAUSED at 2:35 PM on May 4, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by EXISTENZ IS PAUSED at 2:35 PM on May 4, 2020 [1 favorite]
The effect is that 5G devices will work and you might see a few more "ugly" antennas scattered about than you did previously. That's it.
It is physically impossible for the radio waves emitted by cell towers to cause you any physical harm whatsoever unless you somehow manage to plant yourself a foot away from the cell tower's antenna. Even in that case, the only risk is (eventually) warming the exterior of your body. 5G sites are actually lower risk in that sense than older standards because the sites tend to transmit with lower power because they cover a smaller area.
The burn risk was very real (for people working on cell towers while they were turned on) back in the old analog days when cell sites transmitted 500+ watts. Not so much now when they typically transmit about the same energy as an incandescent light bulb at the very top end.
I used to spend a lot of time very close to cell antennas when I was mounting WiFi bridges on tall buildings. They were never turned off, yet I never experienced any ill effects despite being less than 10 feet away at times. There is nothing special about 5G relative to the older digital standards in use at the time in regards to the effect on the human body.
posted by wierdo at 10:20 PM on May 4, 2020 [5 favorites]
It is physically impossible for the radio waves emitted by cell towers to cause you any physical harm whatsoever unless you somehow manage to plant yourself a foot away from the cell tower's antenna. Even in that case, the only risk is (eventually) warming the exterior of your body. 5G sites are actually lower risk in that sense than older standards because the sites tend to transmit with lower power because they cover a smaller area.
The burn risk was very real (for people working on cell towers while they were turned on) back in the old analog days when cell sites transmitted 500+ watts. Not so much now when they typically transmit about the same energy as an incandescent light bulb at the very top end.
I used to spend a lot of time very close to cell antennas when I was mounting WiFi bridges on tall buildings. They were never turned off, yet I never experienced any ill effects despite being less than 10 feet away at times. There is nothing special about 5G relative to the older digital standards in use at the time in regards to the effect on the human body.
posted by wierdo at 10:20 PM on May 4, 2020 [5 favorites]
It is physically impossible for the radio waves emitted by cell towers to cause you any physical harm whatsoever unless you somehow manage to plant yourself a foot away from the cell tower's antenna.
This. The same cannot necessarily be said, though, for the radio waves emitted by a cell phone carried close to your body most of the time. If you're conversing with somebody worried about 5G towers, I suggest gently redirecting their worries to where 1/r2 would suggest as the more plausible places to put them.
posted by flabdablet at 10:54 PM on May 4, 2020 [1 favorite]
This. The same cannot necessarily be said, though, for the radio waves emitted by a cell phone carried close to your body most of the time. If you're conversing with somebody worried about 5G towers, I suggest gently redirecting their worries to where 1/r2 would suggest as the more plausible places to put them.
posted by flabdablet at 10:54 PM on May 4, 2020 [1 favorite]
Ugh. A Disconnect between cell phone fears and science. Cell phone radiation isn't going to harm you.
posted by kathrynm at 12:08 PM on May 5, 2020
posted by kathrynm at 12:08 PM on May 5, 2020
No, it almost certainly isn't. But the point is that if 60GHz radio waves do anything at all to biological systems, it's overwhelmingly likely that whatever they do, it will be the transmitter within millimetres of your body, not the transmitter with tens to hundreds of metres of separation from it, that does it.
Towers are totally the wrong thing to be concerned about even if pulsed 850MHz - 60GHz signals are in any way biologically active at less than gross heating intensities. Knowing that could easily help somebody who suffers from radio anxiety feel adequately in control of their own exposure level rather than helpless and overwhelmed by the irresistibly increasing ubiquity of base stations.
posted by flabdablet at 10:41 AM on May 6, 2020
Towers are totally the wrong thing to be concerned about even if pulsed 850MHz - 60GHz signals are in any way biologically active at less than gross heating intensities. Knowing that could easily help somebody who suffers from radio anxiety feel adequately in control of their own exposure level rather than helpless and overwhelmed by the irresistibly increasing ubiquity of base stations.
posted by flabdablet at 10:41 AM on May 6, 2020
« Older Chicagoland beach we could "visit" from the car? | Raw chicken hands - how bad is this? Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Caravantea at 12:42 PM on May 4, 2020 [6 favorites]