FCC Says 5G Just as Safe as Other Gs

Are 5G or other mobile phones safe to use? The scientific evidence so far suggests the clear answer is “yes.” And after a new review in light of 5G network launches, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission has found no reason to modify its existing guidelines. 

“As noted by the FDA, there is no evidence to support that adverse health effects in humans are caused by exposures at, under, or even in some cases above, the current RF limits,” says the FCC. “Indeed, no scientific evidence establishes a causal link between wireless device use and cancer or other illnesses.”

The FDA also maintains that “[t]he scientific evidence does not show a danger to any users of cell phones from RF exposure, including children and teenagers,” the FCC says. 

The World Health Organization (WHO) states that “[f]rom all evidence accumulated so far, no adverse short-or long-term health effects have been shown to occur from the RF signals produced by base stations.

The FDA maintains that “[t]he weight of scientific evidence has not linked cell phones with any health problems”31 and that “the current safety limits for cell phones are acceptable for protecting the public health.”

Upon review of the record, the FCC says, “we find no appropriate basis for and thus decline to initiate a rulemaking to reevaluate the existing RF exposure limits.”

In a recent proceeding taking a long at radio frequency emissions standards, the FCC found a  “lack of data in the record to support modifying our existing exposure limits.”

“Specifically, no expert health agency expressed concern about the Commission’s RF exposure limits. Rather, agencies’ public statements continue to support the current limits,” the FCC says. 

“Our existing exposure limits were adopted following recommendations from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and other federal health and safety agencies,” the FCC says.

“While research on the health effects of RF energy continues, no evidence has moved our sister health and safety agencies to issue substantive policy recommendations for strengthening RF exposure regulation,” the FCC says. 

Indeed, says the FCC, the standards some argue the FCC should adopt are millions to billions times more restrictive than FCC limits. The practical result is that “no device could reliably transmit any usable level of energy by today’s technological standards while meeting those limits.” In other words, no cell phone use whatsoever, by anybody. 

“There is no scientific evidence in the record that such restrictive limits would produce any tangible benefit to human health, or provide any improvement over current protections against established risks,” the FCC says.