No “new risks” for health envisaged, according to ANSES

It is “unlikely”, in the current state of knowledge, that 5G telephony presents “new risks” to health. This was confirmed by the National Health Security Agency (ANSES) on Tuesday by updating an opinion for 2021. In April of that year, the organization had issued this long-awaited opinion but its very calendar was controversial, since it had been published a few months after the start of the deployment of this fifth generation of mobile telephony.

The debate had been heated, with President Emmanuel Macron believing, for example, that the proponents of a moratorium wanted a “return to the oil lamp”.

We publish an updated version of our expertise on the health effects of #5G following public consultation.
The contributions collected and the new exposure measurements confirm our initial conclusions.

Learn more: https://t.co/Q6SEHJaJAZ pic.twitter.com/5U8p9DknnU

— Anses (@Anses_fr) February 17, 2022

More than 200 additional contributions

In this opinion, ANSES had estimated that “on the basis of the scientific data available to date”, it was “unlikely that the deployment of 5G (in the frequency bands already deployed in France) presents new risks for health”, while acknowledging the lack of studies on certain frequencies. However, it had opened several weeks of “public consultation” on its opinion, indicating that it could possibly complete it.

More than 200 contributions – individuals, associations or industrialists – have thus been collected and ANSES has also gone through the first exposure measurements “in the vicinity of 5G relay antennas” carried out by the National Frequency Agency (ANFR).

“Confirmed” initial conclusions

The update of its opinion concludes that these new elements “confirm the initial conclusions”. Namely that for the frequencies already deployed, very close to those used for previous generations, “the overall levels of exposure to electromagnetic fields will be comparable to or slightly higher than those of existing technologies” and that it is therefore “unlikely that this deployment brings new health risks.”

For the 26 GHz frequency band, not yet used in France, ANSES notes, as in its initial opinion, that “there are currently too few data to conclude on the existence or not of health effects”. However, the health agency recommends continuing studies, in particular monitoring exposure, and adopting “rational uses” of 5G, in particular for children or by using headset kits, for example.

Several associations denounce this opinion

The NGOs Agir pour l’environnement and Priartem (association against the risks linked to electromagnetic technologies), which had unsuccessfully challenged the deployment of 5G in court, regretted a process which “allowed the government to impose 5G” , with more than 50,000 antennas already deployed. They denounced a “political instrumentalization of ANSES”.

Emphasizing that the agency once again notes “the lack of data on new frequencies and its difficulty in assessing the risks”, they denounce the fact that the public authorities have taken “the responsibility of exposing the population to new unstudied frequencies “. Other NGOs, “Alerte Phonegate” and “Robin des Toits” in particular, have denounced a “parody of consultation”, asserting “that none of [leurs] intake does[avait] been taken into account”.