It is “unlikely”, in the current state of knowledge, that 5G telephony presents “new risks” to health, the National Health Security Agency confirmed on Thursday by updating a 2021 opinion. regretted by several associations.
ANSES issued this long-awaited opinion in April 2021, but the very timing of which was controversial, since it was published a few months following 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”.
The agency then 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 health risks », while acknowledging the lack of studies on certain frequencies. However, it had opened several weeks of “public consultation” on its opinion, indicating that it might possibly complete it.
Adopt “reasoned uses”
More than 200 contributions – individuals, associations or industrialists – were collected and ANSES also reviewed initial exposure measurements “in the vicinity of 5G relay antennas” carried out by the National Frequency Agency (ANFR). 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”.
For the health agency, it was also a question of “qualifying the remaining uncertainties”, in particular on the “intrinsic effects on health” and the levels of exposure, underlines Olivier Merckel, head of the risk assessment unit. related to physical agents at ANSES. It therefore recommends continuing studies, in particular monitoring exposure, and adopting “rational uses” of 5G, in particular for children or by using headset kits, for example.
“Political instrumentalization of ANSES”
The NGOs Agir pour l’environnement and Priartem (association once morest the risks linked to electromagnetic technologies), which had unsuccessfully challenged the deployment of 5G in court, regretted a process which had “allowed the government to impose 5G”, with more than 50,000 antennas already deployed, and denounced a “political instrumentalization of ANSES”.
Emphasizing that ANSES once once more 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 “.
The agency itself had wished when publishing its opinion in April 2021 that in the future the expertise be carried out “prior to (the) deployment” of new technologies. Olivier Merckel also recognizes a “recurring problem” with the deployment of new technologies, which can quickly create new uses, while “the time for research and expertise is long by nature”.
Other NGOs, “Alert Phonegate” and “Robin of the roofs” in particular, denounced a “parody of consultation”, affirming “that none of (their) contributions (had) been taken into account”.
