Elected officials, associations and even the Minister of Health have asked in recent weeks to suspend the launch of 5G to the report by ANSES (National Agency for Food, Environment and Work Health Security) on its biological and health effects. Yet the agency’s findings will certainly not end the debate.
Science can’t decide the question
Olivier Merckel, the expert in charge of the file at ANSES, made a point of warning those who are waiting for him to definitively decide the question with his work, which will be published in the first quarter of 2021. “I have to disappoint you: we can never demonstrate that there is no risk with 5G (…) or with any other technology or agent”, he said during a round table in the Senate on Wednesday 1is July. “We are necessarily in an uncomfortable situation for the public authorities. What we can do is try to best characterize the available data and the associated uncertainties ”, he added.
5G assessment is just beginning
However, he recalled that the work carried out to date by ANSES on mobile telephony did not highlight any proven risk linked to exposure to mobile telephone antennas concerning 2G, 3G or 4G. For the telephone, the situation is less clear. Due to its proximity to the body, it remains the most worrying source of exposure to waves. On the order of 100 to 1000 times higher than with an antenna.
With regard more particularly to 5G, the challenge weighs mainly on the 3.5 GHz frequency, which has given rise to very few experiments so far. The question is whether it is possible to extrapolate, for 3.5 GHz, the studies already carried out in other bands which would be close. The fact that antennas can focus radio broadcasts towards users should also vary the exposure in space and time. It is a question of predicting to what extent exposure levels could increase under different usage scenarios. But it will be necessary to wait until the networks are deployed and the users connected in 5G to learn more. The evaluation work of ANSES is therefore only just beginning and is called upon to be deepened as the rise of 5G and its evolutions increases.
–
