With the transition from 4G LTE to the faster 5G network, some scary stories are also emerging, and believe it or not, some people actually believe that 5G will give you cancer, smartphones are microwaving our body, and mmWave technology can lead to brain tumor. These are just a few of the killer myths people think what the 5G network can do to our body.
Well, these are all claptrap.
Most of these myths originate way back 2G network and people are just here to scare people once more. There has been no proof that the radiation emitted by smartphone or satellite towers is the cause of cancer and other deadly claims.
This is how radiation works
When we first hear the word radiation we immediately think of nuclear bombs and waste hazards. While that’s partly true, there are also plenty of safe radiations out there like the constant cosmic ray of the sun.
The good and bad radiation can be recognized via the difference between ionizing and non-ionizing radiation. Ionizing radiation are wavelengths above ultraviolet light, like gamma rays and X-rays. These are the ones that can damage your DNA, which has a chance to develop a tumor or cancer.
LTE mobile networks and other lower radio waves are non-ionizing. They can’t damage your body like people claimed it to be. In fact, UV tanning booth are more dangerous than LTE or Wi-Fi signals.
Can cellphones kill you?
The FCC’s safe limit for mobile phones is a specific absorption rate (SAR) of 1.6 watts per kg (1.6 W/kg) of mass, nowhere near enough to warm up your body.
Smartphones marketed in the U.S. must demonstrate compliance with this limit before they go on sale. ICNIRP guidelines used in Europe and most other countries set this limit at around 2.0 W/kg. These are the absolute legal limits of exposure. Most of the time the real-world values are significantly lower, especially when we put our phones down.
In short, phones can’t give you cancer, or whatever kind of killer side effects, you read on the internet. However, mobile phones can make you sterile, but this is not because of radiation. This is caused due to the direct heat emitted by the phone.
What about 5G and mmWave?
There isn’t any compelling evidence that cellular networks and wavelengths can harm your DNA and the same goes for 5G technologies. These frequencies use low frequency, non-ionizing, radiation so there aren’t any new risks. Even the higher mmWave frequency still don’t reach close to ionizing radiation wavelengths and the technology actually extends further away from the maximum human RF absorption frequency of about 70MHz.
MmWave will mostly deploy in the 24 to 29GHz spectrum. The FCC’s FR safety regulations apply all the way up to 100GHz, so mmWave 5G devices are bound by the same safety standards and energy limits as existing 4G LTE, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi products. A 60GHz mmWave outputting a whopping 50W/m2 of power only raises skin temperature by 0.8 degrees Celsius, which is below the IEEE standards temperature threshold of 1 degree Celsius for mmWave radiation guidelines.
So, it’s safe to say that 5G can’t kill you and myths aren’t real but just a product of our imagination. On this case, over-imagination. Let’s leave the myths behind, shall we? And head to the 5G future.
