5G in the city – how much radiation can we expect?
October 11, 2024
How much 5G radiation would you be exposed to walking along the street or spending time in a busy city?
To answer this question, Professor Lennart Hardell and Dr Tarmo Koppel took measurements of radiofrequency (wireless) radiation in a number of busy locations in the Swedish city of Stockholm.
‘It is clear from our measurements made so far that the implementation of 5G has indeed caused a massive increase in human and environmental exposure to pulse-modulated RF radiation,’ the authors concluded.
Hardell and Koppel found hotspots of radiation caused by the 5G antennas and, sometimes, reflected 5G signals. They noticed that some of the 5G antennas were located close to people, for example on ceilings of buildings. This is because 5G antennas need to be placed where they are close to subscribers’ devices – and hence subscribers. ‘Thus people passing by on the street or hanging around that area are highly exposed to RF radiation according to our measurements,’ the authors said.
Among the maximum radiation levels the researchers measured were the following:
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in a busy shopping gallery: 2 127 380 µW/m2
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in a main street: 11 613 976 µW/m2
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in a popular plaza: 3 290 314 µW/m2
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in Stockholm Central Station: 3 637 191 µW/m2
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in a busy walking and shopping area: 5 271 555 µW/m2
These levels of radiation are far above radiation limits of 100,000 µW/m2 in Russia, China, Italy, much of Eastern Europe, Switzerland and Toronto Board of Health (Canada). They are also far above the 0.1 µW/m2 recommended for sleeping areas in the Building Biology Guidelines of Germany.
Further, these levels are similar to 5G radiation levels that caused people living near 5G base stations to develop debilitating symptoms. ‘Most of the subjects were forced, if possible, to move to another place for living with no 5G base station in the neighborhood due to the severity of the symptoms,’ the authors said. When they moved away from the 5G signals, their symptoms reduced or disappeared quickly.
Nevertheless, the radiation levels measured in this study were well below the 10,000,000 µW/m2 level recommended by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) and followed by Australia and many other countries.
These Guidelines, which the authors describe as ‘extremely high and outdated’ only take into consideration a small number of short-term effects.
‘ICNIRP’s limits are based only on heating [thermal] effects from RF radiation that appear when the RF radiation is so intense that it causes acute thermal effects within an hour. These limits do not protect against non-thermal effects caused by acute or chronic exposure, although there is abundant evidence for a multitude of such effects,’ the authors say.
Further, they point out that ‘ICNIRP’s thermal limits are adopted by most governments although known to allow exposure that poses risks to human health and the environment. The main reason seems to be that they are important to the telecom industry. The scientifically invalid ICNIRP and FCC approach gives industry a ‘green card’ to roll out 5G, as well as further generations such as 6G.’
As a result of their findings, Hardell and Koppel recommend that ‘further deployment of 5G should be stopped until research on the safety has been made.’
Hardell L, Koppel T., Spots with Extremely High Radiofrequency Radiation After Deployment of 5G Base Stations in Stockholm, Sweden. Ann Clin Med Case Rep. 2024; V14(4): 1-8,
Measure 5G radiation in your area
Our CEMProtec 31 is a handy and easy-to-use device for detecting radiofrequency radiation from mobile phone base stations and other sources. It will detect 5G signals up to 10 GHz and you can see more here.
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