With the news that the solar industry is being hit hard by the recent U.K. budget (800% TAX increase for businesses if using solar power, businesses include state run schools but not the privately run schools) it may be time to look into how the government expects to lead the charge in the tech industry by completely disregarding cleaner energies. One of the main pushes will be into the emerging 5G network on the run up to 2020.

If you search for information on 5G you will find many tech related sites extolling the virtues of 5G and all that comes with it. What they do not mention are the health factors associated with pushing this into widespread public use. 5G will mean a need for many more towers, quite possibly one on every street corner as mentioned on CIO.com: 5g every street corner  (these go under the term ‘small cells’. Small cells is a term meaning low-powered radio access nodes that help provide service to both indoor and outdoor areas. These nodes work in either licensed or unlicensed spectrums, and have a range between 10 meters and two kilometers.)

There is also a study under way in New Zealand at the Massey University to discover whether future wireless communications could be harmful,  Massey University in collaboration with India’s Birla Institute of Technology and Auckland University of Technology will be working on the project ‘Analysing Harmful Electromagnetic Exposure due to Future Millimeter Wave Transmissions’ over 2016-2017.

“If the future wireless signals are found to be harmless to the human health, this project would build consumer confidence in the future telecommunication services. However, if this project shows that the 5G network leads to, or potentially may lead to adverse health impacts, the industry would be required to modify the underlying wireless technology to ensure the human well being,” principal investigator Faraz Hasan, School of Engineering and Advanced Technology, Massey University

We are not saying that 5G should come with a health warning but these points need to be considered. Hopefully they will be before mass rollout to the public.