UKHSA Publish New Study Assessing Exposures to 5G Mobile Radio Waves

The issue of mobile broadband networks and human health just cropped up again after the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) published the outcome from its “extensive programme of research” to assess exposures from 5G Base Stations. The study found exposure to radio waves from 5G remain “well below the guidelines” and is “generally lower or similar” to 4G EMF exposure.

At present, the only known health impact from radio (wireless) signals in a low power non-ionizing mobile network environment is a minuscule amount of heating. But your body experiences massively more heating from the natural electromagnetic (EM) environment, such as via the Sun, or infrared radiation from your home’s central heating system during winter etc. (we’ve covered all of this before).

Science generally classifies everything from radio waves, microwaves, infrared and visible light as non-ionizing radiation, which means it won’t normally have enough energy (low energy) to knock electrons off the atoms that it interacts with and won’t do damage, such as breaking chemical bonds in molecules (i.e. it’s not usually harmful to humans). You could of course still put masses of energy behind some of these waves and thus do damage (e.g. military weapons), but that’s a completely different application from low-power wireless communications.

By comparison ultraviolet (only the top end from around 3000 TeraHertz), X-rays and gamma rays are all classified as ionizing radiation, which is more of a health hazard to humans because it involves changing the basic makeup of atoms in cells (e.g. the DNA molecules inside of cells). But it normally takes a higher dosage of ionizing radiation before any negative health impacts start to show (e.g. spending too long in the sun – a source of all types of EM).

Despite all this and plenty of past research, some people have continued to be concerned that the newer 5G mobile networks could cause harm, which is despite the technology and its implementation in the UK being broadly similar to past 3G and even 4G mobile networks (i.e. the same sort of antenna designs, signal distances, radio bands and power levels). But it never hurts to conduct more research.

The New Study

The UKHSA has now updated its guidance to include the results of their in‐situ measurements of radiofrequency EM fields around 5G Macro Base Stations in the UK, which has been published in the peer-reviewed journal Bioelectromagnetics (here). This conducted various RF EM field spot measurements in line-of-sight to 56 active 5G macro base stations across 30 publicly accessible locations in the UK.

Four different exposure scenarios were assessed: background (no traffic instigation), streaming videos, downlink speed test, and extrapolation of SS-RSRP decoder measurements. Power density measurements across the 420MHz – 6GHz frequency range were also performed at each site to assess the total exposure from various RF sources in the environment (most UK mobile networks tend to use between 700MHz and 4GHz).

Overall, both total RF and 5G specific power density levels were found to be well within the 1998 International Commission on Non‐Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) public reference levels, even when extrapolating to a worst-case scenario.

4G downlink was found to be the dominant contributor to total RF exposure, with 5G contributing on average less than 10%. No statistically significant difference was observed between beamforming and non-beamforming sites. Streaming did not seem to contribute materially to exposure levels, suggesting that background measurements are a good representation of typical downlink exposure at current urban and suburban 5G sites.

UKHSA Summary

Exposure to radio waves is not new and health-related research has been conducted on this topic over several decades. In particular, a large amount of new scientific evidence has emerged since the year 2000 through dedicated national and international research programmes that have addressed concerns about rapidly proliferating wireless technologies.

The main focus of recent research studies has been on exposure to the types of radio signals used by current communications technologies and the frequencies they use, up to a few GHz.

The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) carried out an extensive programme of research to assess exposures from 5G Base Stations as the technology is rolled out in the UK.

The results of this comprehensive programme are now published in the peer-reviewed journal Bioelectromagnetics, In‐situ Measurements of Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Fields Measurements around 5G Macro Base Stations in the UK.

The results confirm UKHSA’s existing advice that exposure to radio waves from 5G Base Stations is well below the guidelines set by the ICNIRP.

The results also suggest that electromagnetic field (EMF) exposure from 5G signals, are generally lower or similar to 4G EMF exposure.

UKHSA’s advice in using 5G technologies remains the same in light of this publication.

Fewer studies have been carried out at higher frequencies. However, the biophysical mechanisms that govern the interaction between radio waves and body tissues are well understood at higher frequencies and are the basis of the present ICNIRP restrictions. The main change in using higher frequencies is that there is less penetration of radio waves into body tissues and absorption of the radio energy, and any consequent heating, becomes more confined to the body surface.

As we’ve said before, “higher frequencies” in a commercial low powered mobile/wireless communication environment are normally weaker because such networks are still required to observe strict power limits. In practice this means that higher frequency signals (e.g. 3.8GHz is much higher than 700MHz) can carry more data due to being able to access a greater amount of spare spectrum frequency, but the signals themselves end up being unable to travel as far, cannot easily penetrate through objects in their path (buildings, people etc.) and are more easily disrupted by environmental interference.

“It is possible that there may be a small increase in overall exposure to radio waves when 5G is added to an existing network or in a new area. However, the overall exposure is expected to remain low relative to guidelines and, as such, there should be no consequences for public health,” concluded the UKHSA.