Possible Health Effects of 5G Technology: A Literature Review

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: Researches on whether electromagnetic environmental pollution caused by the emissions of 5G technology, which has started trial studies in our country, have negative effects on human health is increasing day by day. It is important for public health science to investigate the possible health problems that may be caused by base stations, whose number will increase significantly with the new technology. In this study, a review of the qualitative and quantitative results of existing studies in the literature was made and it was aimed to create a knowledge base for possible future 5G studies.

METHOD: Literature review was conducted between January and March 2021 on PubMed, Google Scholar and ResearchGate, among the articles that included the words "5G, 5G and health, EMR" among the studies conducted in the last 10 years.

RESULTS: The World Health Organization's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified RF radiation in the 30 kHz-300 GHz frequency range as Group 2B as 'possible' human carcinogen in 2011. The fifth generation wireless mobile communication infrastructure (5G) will operate by utilizing new and therefore relatively unassessed supporting technologies in terms of security in order to provide higher data transfer capacity compared to previous generations. This new technology will increase the data capacity and reduce the coverage area of ​​the base stations, which will cause the base stations to be positioned more frequently. In two different studies published in 2018, the US-based National Toxicology Program (NTP) stated that high exposure to radio waves used in 2G and 3G mobile networks caused heart tumors in male rats. The research reports an increased incidence of brain and heart tumors in rats exposed to EMR generated by a radio base station. Some studies have shared their results that exposure to intense 5G radiation negatively affects eye and skin health. In some of the studies, this wavelength has been shown to induce or inhibit cell death and increase or suppress cell proliferation. On the other hand, some studies did not report any biological effects, reporting that the scientific adequacy of the studies on the negative effects of 5G base stations on health was invalid.

CONCLUSION: Although there are researches that 5G base stations, which will increase the anxiety level of people in the future, may cause diseases such as tumors on human health, many studies also claim that the base stations are completely harmless for human health. In today's world literature, there is no definite conclusion about the effects of 5G base stations on human health. Therefore, more studies are needed to understand the effects of 5G base stations on human health.