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5G network technology roll out in Wollongong has residents concerned
Australia Created: 22 Jul 2019
A group of residents in Wollongong are concerned about the potential health risks of electromagnetic radiation from the roll out of fifth generation technology.

The 5G mobile network promises to build on the 3G and 4G networks by providing greater bandwidth, lower latency and energy savings.

It will allow more people to use higher speeds at the same time.

In Sydney, Telstra has rolled out 5G in certain suburbs across Sydney and this has reignited calls from Illawarra residents for health and safety testing on electromagnetic radiation.

Russell Vale's Dave Bourke said studies have shown exposure contributes to a risk of cancers and tumours, insomnia, lowered immunity, DNA damage and more.

"There has been no long-term studies of electromagnetic radiation before the roll out of the 5G network," he said. "Telecommunications companies in other countries do not allow as much radiation as Australia.

"I'm worried more people will suffer problems from electromagnetic radiation and then they won't be able to go to work or school and we will see the collapse of the economy."

Mr Bourke and other residents want experts and the Australian government to consider studies and reports published in other countries.

Wollongong's Nick Manevski said residents would have a constant transmission of electromagnetic radiation in their homes as the roll out of the network requires an upgrade of transition towers and small cell boxes in streets.

"It will be like having microwave saturation 24 hours a day," Mr Manevski said. "There is no escape. People can't opt out."

Wollongong resident Kane Strous said he was originally supportive of the roll out because he wanted high speed internet but after looking into the technology he fears residents are not being given all the information about the health implications.

The group are holding a community meeting on July 27 from 1pm to 3pm at Wollongong Seniors Centre, Gwynneville for residents to find out more information about their campaign to stop 5G coming to the Illawarra.

"We are trying to raise awareness of the dangers of 5G," Corrimal's Mignon Lee-Warden said.

"We want people to come along to share their thoughts and information. As a community we should be able to make informed choices about our health."

The group plan to lobby Wollongong City Council to help them stop the roll out.

Telstra regional general manager Mike Marom said Telstra was continuing to roll out 5G over the next 12 months into at least 35 cities but did not say when it would occur in the Illawarra.

An Optus spokeswoman said there were no immediate sites planned for the Illawarra but "the region is very much part of our 5G plans".
Health regulators say no need for alarm

The Australian Government and major telecommunications operators say there is no need for alarm about the health risks of 5G network technology.

Residents have raised concerns about the potential cancer risks of electromagnetic radiation exposure but national health regulators say otherwise.

A spokesman from the office of the Minister for Communications, Cyber Safety and the Art said the radio frequency electromagnetic energy associated with telecommunications facilities, known as EME, has not been found to cause adverse health effects.

"This includes the EME that will be emitted from 5G networks," he said. "This is backed up by decades of research, by reputable Australian and international scientists."

Telstra's EME strategy, governance and risk management principal Mike Wood said Telstra conducted EME testing on the trial 5G network at Southport on the Gold Coast.

"The test results show EME levels are similar to the existing mobile technologies, and well below the EME safety limits," Mr Wood said.

"The World Health Organisation and Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency advise that there is no substantiated scientific evidence that radiofrequency technologies that operate within national and international safety standards cause health effects."

The spokesman said telecommunications facilities needed to adhere to a strict regulatory framework.

"ARPNSA sets strict standards for EME, and compliance with these standards is enforced by the Australian Communications and Media Authority," he said. "There are also laws in place that help telecommunications providers deploy their networks."
Click here to view the source article.
Source: Illawarra Mercury, Ashleigh Tullis, 14 Jul 2019

MORE THAN 90% OF OPERATORS FEAR RISING ENERGY COSTS FOR 5G, EDGE
Australia Created: 3 Jul 2019
Operators are optimistic about the future services 5G will enable, but estimates suggest network energy consumption could increase by up to 170 per cent by 2026.

Related news:
Jul 2018, United Kingdom: Our phones and gadgets are now endangering the planet
Dec 2009, Denmark: Mobile-phone technology is a Carbon-emissions Whopper!

Vertiv, in collaboration with technology analyst firm 451 Research, has released the findings of an in-depth survey which reveals a good sense of optimism about the services 5G will enable and the interplay with edge computing. The majority of telecoms operators surveyed believe the 5G era will start in earnest in 2021 in all geographies, with 88 per cent of respondents planning to deploy 5G in 2021-2022.

However, more than 90 per cent of respondents believe 5G will result in higher energy costs and are interested in technologies and services that improve efficiency. This is consistent with internal analysis by Vertiv, which finds the move to 5G is likely to increase total network energy consumption by 150-170 per cent by 2026, with the largest increases in macro, node and network data centre areas.

The survey questioned more than 100 global telecoms operators about the opportunities and potential obstacles of deploying 5G services and the impact on edge computing adoption. Vertiv and 451 Research shared details of the findings at Mobile World Congress on February 27th in Barcelona, Spain.

“There’s no doubt that 5G is the next big thing for communications and mobile networks. It is understandable, however, that there are concerns when it comes to deploying this technology. It is critical for operators to have the right infrastructure in place that would allow them to rollout 5G in the most efficient manner. By understanding the different use cases as outlined by Vertiv, and with the aid of the 451 Research survey, it is our hope that they can make informed decisions when it comes to investing in their critical infrastructure,” said Danny Wong, senior director for telecoms at Vertiv in Asia.

Regarding edge and 5G specifically, the survey reveals that a large majority of operators have deployed (37 per cent) or plan to deploy (47 per cent) edge compute that is aligned with mobile infrastructure – also called multi-access edge computing (MEC).

“This survey brings us clarity on telecom operators’ hopes and fears around 5G and edge deployments,” says Brian Partridge, research vice president for 451 Research. “The two toughest connectivity challenges for supporting 5G topologies were revealed to be upgrading access and aggregation layer networks and adding new backhaul links. Survey respondents indicated that the availability of high quality connectivity to distributed POPs and ease of site acquisition were viewed as the most critical enablers to 5G success. We were frankly surprised by some of these results and believe it brings clarity to the level of transformation the industry now faces.”
Click here to view the source article.
Source: Telecom Times, Richard van der Draay, 06 Mar 2019

New EHS website & forums: EMR Sanctuary
Australia Created: 5 Mar 2019
EMR Aware is pleased to announce a new online forum "EMR Sanctuary" - It is dedicated to the increasing number of persons affected by electro-sensitivity, or EHS.

Included are five membership discussion boards as follows.

General Discussion: Personal stories, appeals. Events, notices, calls to action.

Getaways: Low radiation areas. EMR-free communities, forming. Travel and lodging.

Detection: EMR monitoring, meters, surveys. Tower finding, coverage maps.

Countermeasures: Distance, shielding, architecture. Alternative technologies, hardwiring. Nutrition, lifestyle.

Technical Q+A: Workings of personal devices, hotspots, towers. Community opposition, strategy.

This initiative intended to address prevailing conditions within Australia. However, there are no geographical restrictions upon joining. All that is required is completion of a simple online form. At that time, an anonymous username may be chosen. As always, our subscriber lists will not be used for unrelated purposes.

You are invited to sign up now at www.emrsanctuary.com. Together, we can create sharing and unity of purpose required to successfully promote safer technologies and regulatory standards. Given the arrival of beam-like 5G networks, millions of small cell antennas and thousands of internet satellites, nothing less than the future well-being of humanity is at stake.

Please help spread the word by forwarding this email to as many interested persons as possible.


Best regards,

The EMR Aware Team

www.emraware.com

www.emrsanctuary.com
Click here to view the source article.
Source: EMR Sanctuary, P Nielsen, 03 Mar 2019

An Australian Law Firm seeking those who have been harmed by WI-FI
Australia Created: 9 Feb 2019
If you believe that the effects of WiFi, mobile phones, or mobile phone tower base stations have caused injury to yourself, your child/children or a friend, you are not alone. The increasingly widespread use of WiFi across business and government (especially in schools) is a move that goes against the rapidly mounting body of credible scientific evidence which makes increasingly clear that exposure to even low levels of electromagnetic radiation (also known as EMR), which includes WiFi, on an ongoing basis has a wide range of serious adverse health effects.

These health effects can include:

- ongoing headaches, nausea, sleep disruption, fatigue and decreased ability to concentrate
- damage to your reproductive organs (including sperm)
- affecting embryonic and foetal development
- neurological/neuropsychiatric changes (including affecting mood and learning difficulties)
- development and function of the brain
- cell death
- endocrine changes (such as pancreatic dysfunction)
- calcium overload
- increased oxidative stress
- DNA damage
- the development of cancers and tumours

As long ago as 2011 the World Health Organisation classified EMR as a class 2B “possible carcinogen” to humans. Since then, the scientific evidence has strengthened, and many scientists around the world are now calling for that classification to be upgraded.

In more recent years it is increasingly well established that there are numerous adverse health effects of EMR, some of which can be immediate (such as for those people with electromagnetic sensitivity), but many of which are not immediate but are cumulative and irreversible.

Children are the most likely to suffer from the damaging effects of EMR due to their developing bodies and longer daily/yearly/lifetime exposure to EMR from all sources, including most hours of the day every school day (which they have no choice but to attend). However, children are not the only ones affected.

In 2015 about 190 scientists and doctors from around the world called for far more stringent requirements on EMR than currently exist in some western countries, including Australia. This group has now increased to over 240 scientists and doctors from 42 countries.

Also in 2015, Lloyds of London, one of the world’s largest insurers, excluded as standard from its policies any EMR injury claims. They did so for good reason, and many insurers around the world have done the same. Even insurers see EMR as a significant claims risk. Any business/government/school not covered by insurance for injury caused by EMR (including WiFi) may be liable for injuries it causes from EMR now and in the future

Numerous countries and regional areas across Europe, and even countries such as Cyprus and Israel, have banned WiFi in schools due to the risk of its damaging health effects upon children. Legal actions relating to EMR in Europe have succeeded, and in Australia, a government worker has successfully sued the Federal government body and obtained compensation for an EMR related injury for nausea, disorientation, and headaches.

As recently as in 2018 a long term study in the United States (Federal Department of Health’s National Toxicology Program) confirmed that there is “clear evidence” that long term exposure to EMR caused a particular type of cancer in rats, with several other types of cancer considered “probable.” The results of this study were replicated by a similar independent study in Italy (the prestigious Ramazzini Institute).

In January 2019 the Italian government has been ordered by its courts to conduct a public awareness campaign regarding the health risks associated with EMR, due to commence in July 2019.

Despite claiming otherwise, Australian government departments (including schools) and businesses have long been on notice of the potential adverse health effects of EMR, including mobile phones, WiFi, and mobile phone base station towers.

Emeritus Professor Anthony Miller, one of the world’s leading experts on cancer, dismisses telco industry and government claims that EMR cannot cause harm as “simply false” and the suggestion that there are no “established” health effects as “misleading”.

If you are concerned about EMR exposure and you think that it may have caused your or your child health problems or injury please contact us to discuss:

https://premiercompensationlawyers.com.au/service/compensation-law/wifi/
Click here to view the source article.
Source: Premier Compensation Lawyers, 09 Feb 2019

Why the Australian government will not advise the public on wireless technologies’ risks to health – At least for now
Australia Created: 22 Jan 2019
EMFacts blog Commentary by Don Maisch PhD.

In stark contrast to a recent Italian court ruling where three Italian government ministries have acknowledged that there is a need to raise public awareness on how to use mobile phones safely (previous message and see Lennart Hardell’s blog here)[1] it is highly unlikely such concern for public safety will be issued from the Australian government, considering the pro-technology bias of the agencies and individuals who currently advise government ministers on telecommunications issues.

Captured Agencies

Whenever public concerns are raised with Aust. government and opposition members over telecommunications issues (mobile phones, smart meters, 5G), the standard response is to unquestionably follow the advice of the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA) and the Australian Centre for Electromagnetic Bioeffects Research (ACEBR). Both agencies steadfastly follow the Procrustean dictates of the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) which do not allow for any deviation from ICNIRP’s dogma.

*SNIP* Read the entire article via the source link below...
Click here to view the source article.
Source: EMFacts blog, Don Maisch PhD, 20 Jan 2019

5G radiation can cause thermal effects even by short exposures, ICNIRP needs urgent revision
Australia Created: 8 Dec 2018
From Cindy Sage: A newly released paper by Esra Neufeld and Niels Kuster identifies serious compliance problems for the 5G millimeter wave rollout and says existing IEEE and ICNIRP safety guidelines urgently need to be revised.

SYSTEMATIC DERIVATION OF SAFETY LIMITS FOR TIME-VARYING 5G RADIOFREQUENCY EXPOSURE BASED ON ANALYTICAL MODELS AND THERMAL DOSE. Health Physics, December 2018, Volume 115, Number 6 Esra Neufeld and Niels Kuster Foundation for Research on Information Technologies in Society (IT’IS),

The paper says is that permanent tissue damage from heating may occur even after short exposures to 5G millimeter wave pulse trains (where repetitive pulses can cause rapid, localized heating). It says there is an urgent need for new thermal safety standards to address the kind of health risks possible with this new technology.

*SNIP*... read the entire article via the source link below...
Click here to view the source article.
Source: EMFacts, Don Maisch, 08 Dec 2018

‘Hyperalarming’ study shows massive insect loss
Australia Created: 16 Oct 2018
Insects around the world are in a crisis, according to a small but growing number of long-term studies showing dramatic declines in invertebrate populations. A new report suggests that the problem is more widespread than scientists realized. Huge numbers of bugs have been lost in a pristine national forest in Puerto Rico, the study found, and the forest’s insect-eating animals have gone missing, too.

Related news:
Aug 2017, USA: Where have all the insects gone?

In 2014, an international team of biologists estimated that, in the past 35 years, the abundance of invertebrates such as beetles and bees had decreased by 45 percent. In places where long-term insect data are available, mainly in Europe, insect numbers are plummeting. A study last year showed a 76 percent decrease in flying insects in the past few decades in German nature preserves.

The latest report, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that this startling loss of insect abundance extends to the Americas. The study’s authors implicate climate change in the loss of tropical invertebrates….SNIP

https://www.washingtonpost.com/science/2018/10/15/hyperalarming-study-shows-massive-insect-loss/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.7be60195b27c

NOTE: When I checked on the location of the “pristine national forest” in Puerto Rico, mentioned in the article, I found that it is located approximately 50 miles from Cayey Puerto Rico, the home to the WSR-88 Doppler Radar which is one of the most powerful and advanced weather surveillance doppler radars in the world, transmitting at 750,000 watts. Cayey is a mountain municipality in central Puerto Rico with the radar facility located on the central mountain. Wether or not this has anything to do with the decline in insects of the national forest is an interesting question. Perhaps not so pristine after all…..
Don
Click here to view the source article.
Source: EMFacts, Don Maisch PhD, 15 Oct 2018

The Wireless Cloud is an “energy monster” warming the world
Australia Created: 28 Mar 2018
Following on from the previous message “How smartphones are heating up the planet” here is an old analysis from 2013 that also examines the energy usage of wireless technology. Their analysis apparently did not include an estimation of the additional future contribution of 5G, the Internet of Things and possibly the roll-out of smart meters. As such, it is a very conservative estimation. All heating up the planet to what end ? (next message)

Titled The Power of Wireless Cloud, it was prepared and published by The Centre for Energy-Efficient
Telecommunications (CEET): Alcatel-Lucent, Bell Labs and University of Melbourne.

Excerpts:

The energy use of cloud services accessed via wireless networks is expected to grow up to 460% between 2012 and 2015, the equivalent of 4.9 million new cars on the roads. The analysis shows that wireless access networks (Wi-Fi and 4G LTE) will be responsible for 90% of that energy. Data centres, the focus of recent high-profile Greenpeace research, account for only 9%.

The problem is that we’re all accessing cloud services – things like webmail, social networking and virtual applications – over wireless networks. It’s the modern way, but wireless is an energy monster; it’s just inherently inefficient.

Access the full report here
http://www.ceet.unimelb.edu.au/publications/ceet-white-paper-wireless-cloud.pdf

And from phys.org, 13 April 2013:
http://www.phys.org/pdf284963162.pdf

(Phys.org) —Research from Australia delivers bracing facts about serious demands on power in the coming years. The researchers find that just pinning power-grid drains on the “cloud” is imprecise. The real problem is on the mobile cloud.The researchers zeroed in on energy consumption needed to support cloud services accessed by wireless networks. They found that wireless networking infrastructure worldwide accounts for significantly more power consumption than datacenters.

“By 2015, the energy consumption of data centers will be a drop in the ocean compared to wireless networks in delivering cloud services,” said Dr Kerry Hinton, Deputy Director, CEET (stands for Center for Energy Efficient Telecommunications). CEET is behind the wake-up report, “The Power of Wireless Cloud.” According to CEET, that drop in the ocean is supported by research findings.Wireless networks will use about 90 percent of the energy needed to power the entire wireless cloud services ecosystem in 2015, in contrast with data centers, accounting for nine percent—or less.

While research elsewhere has pointed to data centers as the culprit in threatening energy consumption, loyal users of services from Google, Facebook, Amazon and others, with their portable devices, are the real concern, driving a massive surge in energy consumption.

“The problem is that we’re all accessing cloud services – things like webmail, social networking and virtual applications – over wireless networks,” said Hinton. “It’s the modern way but wireless is an energy monster, it’s just inherently inefficient.” A simple takeaway is that “Industry needs to focus on the real issues with wireless network technologies if it wants to solve this problem.” All aspects of the cloud ecosystem, according to the
researchers, must be looked at, as well as data centers.

“We often think of bandwidth as the barrier to the way online services evolve and improve,” said a CEET statement discussing the report, but the “very real message here is that the real bottleneck, looming sooner than we think, may be energy.”

One of the more bracing factoids in the report compares wireless cloud energy consumption with putting new cars on the road. “Our energy calculations show that by 2015, wireless cloud will consume up to 43 TWh, compared to only 9.2 TWh in 2012, an increase of 460%. This is an increase in carbon footprint from 6 megatonnes of CO2 in 2012 to up to 30 megatonnes of CO2 in 2015, the equivalent of adding 4.9 million cars to the roads.”

The goal of the report is not to suggest that everyone stop swiping and tapping on their smartscreens, however.

“I think it’s unlikely people trade away the mobile convenience of these services,” said a CEET statement. The report is intended as a guide for finding real solutions. According to CEET, one solution might be to increase the way network resources are shared among users, “but more likely we’ll need a radical improvement in the efficiency of the technologies themselves and potentially a fundamental change to the way data is managed
across the global network. These are the things we’re investigating at CEET.”

CEET is a partnership between Alcatel-Lucent Australia, Bell Labs, the University of Melbourne, and the Victorian State Government. Their focus is on energy-efficient telecommunications.
Click here to view the source article.
Source: EMFacts, Don Maisch PhD, 28 Mar 2018

Botanist report links disappearance of birds, bats & insects to electromagnetic radiation
Australia Created: 22 Nov 2017
A report to UNESCO by botanist Mark Broomhall details the association between increasing amounts of electromagnetic radiation and species disappearance and exodus from the Mount Nardi area of the Nightcap National Park World Heritage Area during a 15-year period (2000-2015). Mt. Nardi has a tower complex, an installation of wireless antennas, that has steadily increased the electromagnetic emissions in the areas as new antennas were added over the years. The report contains a timeline of the activation of new antennas and documents the endangered birds, bats and plants that have decreased in the area. In addition, he states that from the year 2000, flying insects have been noticeably diminishing.

He estimates that 70 to 90% of the wildlife has become rare or has disappeared from the Nightcap National Park within a 2-3 km radius of the Mt. Nardi tower complex and summarized that concrete data shows:

3 bat species once common have become rare or gone
11 threatened and endangered bird species are gone
11 migratory bird species are gone
86 bird species are demonstrating unnatural behaviours
66 once common bird species are now rare or gone
Click here to view the source article.
Source: Environmental Health Trust, 22 Nov 2017

5G phone network: Expert concerned by lack of understanding of potential health effects
Australia Created: 19 Aug 2017
More research is needed into the potential health effects of new 5G mobile phone technology before it is rolled out in Australia, an international expert says.

The high-speed mobile phone network could be operational in Australia from 2020, offering up to 50 times the bandwidth currently available on 4G networks, allowing users to download the equivalent of three television episodes in a second.

Telstra announced last year it would run a world-first test of the technology for visitors to the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast.

International radio frequency expert Professor Dariusz Leszczynski, from the University of Helsinki, told a public lecture at Griffith University in Brisbane on Thursday night there was a concerning lack of understanding about the health effects.

"We know only that this radiation penetrates skin deep," Professor Leszczynski said.

"We don't have the faintest idea how normal-functioning skin will be affected."

Australia's radiation safety government body, the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (ARPANSA), has backed calls to examine whether the country's current radiation safety standards need to be changed for the 5G rollout.

Research published on the agency's website said 5G technology could penetrate skin to a depth of 8 millimetres.

ARPANSA assistant director Dr Ken Karipidis said more research was needed.

"At the frequencies where 5G will be operating, the RF electromagnetic energy does not penetrate much further than the surface of the skin," Dr Karapidis said.

"Adverse health effects are not expected, and the current Australian Standard accounts for these.

"Nevertheless, further research in this area is required, particularly on effects on the skin and the eyes."
Radio frequency emissions a possible carcinogen

Professor Leszczynski was one of the 30 experts on an international World Health Organisation research team in 2011 that classified all radio frequency emissions as a possible carcinogen.

But ARPANSA said the Australian Radiofrequency Standard, based on international guidelines, protected the community from harm.

Professor Leszczynski said examining the health impacts after the technology was rolled out was not good enough.

"It appears we are having deja vu because in the early 1980s we thought that low-power emitting technology would be safe, no problems," he said.

"Thirty years later it appears it is possibly carcinogenic."

ARPANSA said it would be up to individual university research labs to pick up the agency's recommendations for more research into 5G frequencies.

A Telstra spokesman said the company ensured its wireless networks comply with Australian electromagnetic energy (EME) safety standards.

"We rely on the expert advice of a number of national and international health authorities, including ARPANSA and the World Health Organisation," the spokesman said.

"Research into EME, mobile phones and health has been going on for many years.

"The frequencies used by 5G have been used by other radio frequency applications such as satellite and radar for decades … 5G wireless networks are designed to be very efficient and minimise EME."
Click here to view the source article.
Source: ABC News, Isobel Roe, 18 Aug 2017

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