As 5G rollout nears, the unending debate over health effects is back

5G networks will use a frequency band separate from the already congested 4G networks.

Business Standard : Affordable access to the fourth generation of wireless communication, or 4G, has had us hooked to our phones for a large part of the day. It’s our gateway to the news, entertainment and to commerce. But what’s coming next may change the way we interact with the internet forever. At transmission speeds of over 1 gigabit per second, 5G – the fifth generation of wireless communication – will be more than 20-times faster than 4G.

At these speeds, the concept called internet of things – where one internet-linked device can send and receive data from another such device – would become more workable. But to enable data traffic at this rate, telecom companies will have to change the way they send data.

5G networks will use a frequency band separate from the already congested 4G networks. And instead of relying on low-frequency radio waves like 4G and all its predecessors did, the 5G network is set to make use of high-frequency radio waves. These would carry more data and enable faster transmission rates.

But there’s a catch.

The millimetre-long radio waves that will do much of 5G’s bidding cannot travel over large distances. They will have to be intercepted and re-beamed after about every 500 metres. To do this, telecom companies plan to place several small antennas 500 metres apart, cramming them in close spatial quarters. This could expose us to radiation from more sources than before.

Unlike X-rays and ultraviolet radiation, radio-wave exposure is non-ionising. It doesn’t damage the DNA per se. However, some studies have shown that continuous exposure may cause small amounts of localised heating. Whether this could lead to more serious health effects is a question many researchers have asked – and the answers remain out of reach.

Few reports have shown a positive relationship between telephone use and cancer. However, there are as many studies that show no association between the two. “So far, the body of evidence is not large enough to say that the association is conclusive,” Manya Prasad, a senior resident at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, told The Wire