If you've ever been through a city, you may have seen tiny mini 5G cell towers placed on poles for street lighting. They look like small boxes however they're actually sending wireless signals from cellular providers to your phone.
These smaller towers are replacing the larger built cell towers. While they're less noticeable but they can still cause issues for users.
The FCC's Radiation Exposure Thresholds
The FCC's Radiation Exposure Thresholds define the safe limit at which an individual can be exposed to electromagnetic energy from wireless devices. what is a safe distance from a 5g cell tower are based on scientific data that show that RF energy can cause harm to health.
The specific absorption rate (SAR) is an indicator of the amount of radiofrequency energy absorption by tissues. It is typically 1.6 Watts per kilogram calculated over one gram of tissue.
But, since 5g operates at higher frequencies this could be able to create more energy on the skin and other directly-exposed body areas. This can lead to a wide range of possible harms, such as an increase in appearance of skin conditions such as dermatitis, cataracts, and skin cancer.
Due to the potential for harmful effects of radiation from 5G, PSU has chosen to set a general localized maximum power density of four mW/cm2 based on the average across 1 centimeter, and not to exceed 30 minutes, for the entire 5G spectrum at 3000 GHz. This limit for localization is in line with the peak spatial-average SAR of 1.6 W/kg, which is averaged over 1 grams of tissues at six GHz.
The FCC's Maximum Exposure Thresholds for Maximum Exposure
If you've ever operated a cell phone, then you're aware that a safe location from the tower is at least 400 meters. This is because the transmitting power of the cell tower is significantly increased the further the tower is.
While this sounds like something that's good but the truth is that people who live close to towers may actually be more vulnerable to health issues. For instance, a study conducted in 2014 in India discovered that people who lived within 50 meters of cell towers experienced significant more health issues than those living further away from the antennas.
This study showed that residents who moved into areas farther away from cell towers noticed their symptoms return to normal within a couple of days. Studies have also shown that exposure to high frequencies of radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (EMFs) can cause cancer, brain tumors and other health issues.
This is due to the fact that radiofrequency radiation, which is utilized for wireless communication, has the ability to be absorbed by the body's outer layer of skin. It is crucial to know because the skin acts as a shield against injury to the body, infection by pathogenic microorganisms, and entry of toxic substances. It is also the biggest organ in the human body and is accountable for keeping the integrity of the other organs.
The FCC's Minimum Exposure Thresholds
The FCC's Minimum Exposition Thresholds depend on numerous assumptions that are not supported by scientific evidence. They include the false belief that short-term exposures to RF radiation are safe due to the limited absorption into body (i.e. thermal heating of tissue).
safe distance from cell tower is also ignoring the more extensive penetration of ELF elements of modulated radio signals as well as the effects of short bursts of heat caused by RF pulses. These assumptions do not correspond with the current understanding of biological effects of RF radiation. As such they shouldn't be used for health protective exposure guidelines.
Furthermore, safe distance to live from cell phone tower and FCC restrict their limit of exposure to the local SARs, based on the peak speed of spatial absorption (psSAR), which can be described as not a sufficient dosimetric tool to determine the degree of exposure to RF radiation. In particular the psSAR tool is not accurate when frequencies exceed 6 GHz. In addition, psSAR is not been tested for RF radiation that is exposed to other environmental agents such like sunlight. Interactions of RF radiations with different environmental agents may cause synergistic or antagonistic effects. This would result in an increased risk of negative health adverse effects. For example, co-exposure to RF radiation along with exposure to sunlight can increase the risk of skin cancer and exacerbate other skin diseases such as acne.