Health Risks Associated With 5G Exposure: A View From the Communications Engineering Perspective

Abstract

The deployment of the fifth-generation (5G) wireless communication services requires the installation of 5G nextgeneration Node-B Base Stations (gNBs) over the territory and the wide adoption of 5G User Equipment (UE). In this context, the population is concerned about the potential health risks associated with the Radio Frequency (RF) emissions from 5G equipment, with several communities actively working toward stopping the 5G deployment. To face these concerns, in this work, we analyze the health risks associated with 5G exposure by adopting a new and comprehensive viewpoint, based on the communications engineering perspective. By exploiting our background, we debunk the alleged health effects of 5G exposure and critically review the latest works that are often referenced to support the health concerns from 5G. We then precisely examine the up-to-date metrics, regulations, and assessment of compliance procedures for 5G exposure, by evaluating the latest guidelines from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP), the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), and the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC), as well as the national regulations in more than 220 countries. We also thoroughly analyze the main health risks that are frequently associated with specific 5G features (e.g., multipleinput multiple-output (MIMO), beamforming, cell densification, adoption of millimeter waves, and connection of millions of devices). Finally, we examine the risk mitigation techniques based on communications engineering that can be implemented to reduce the exposure from 5G gNB and UE. Overall, we argue that the widely perceived health risks that are attributed to 5G are not supported by scientific evidence from communications engineering. In addition, we explain how the solutions to minimize the health risks from 5G (including currently unknown effects) are already mature and ready to be implemented. Finally, future works, e.g., aimed at evaluating long-term impacts of 5G exposure, as well as innovative solutions to further reduce the RF emissions, are suggested.

Design and Analysis of SWIPT with Safety Constraints

“…Different to the SAR metric, which is a point quantity, the MPE (power density) quantifies the RF exposure over a specific area. The MPE corresponds to either the absorbed power density or the incident power density [6]. The latter is easier to be measured and thus international regulations are given in terms of the maximum incident power density values.…”

“…where E [V/m] is the induced electric field and Z = 377 Ω is the impedance of free space [6]. In the context of wireless networks, the MPE can be evaluated by…”

“…which follows from (6) and is referred to as the point source model, where the transmitting antenna is assumed to be represented by a single point source [48]. Even though this model does not take into account the antenna size (assumed to be a point), it is accurate in the far-field [6], [48]. We first state the following lemma and then provide the main result.…”

“…Some studies have also revealed the potential biological hazard in relation to the RF radiation, including metabolic changes in brain and carcinogenic effects [4], [5]. As such, international health and safety regulations have been put in place in order to regulate and limit the level of RF exposure to humans [6]. Two widely adopted regulations/measures on RF exposure are the so-called maximum permissible exposure (MPE) and specific absorption rate (SAR).…”

Intelligent Surfaces for 6G Wireless Networks: A Survey of Optimization and Performance Analysis Techniques

“…RF technologies are proliferating with the emergence of 6G. According to [70] and [71], a wide range of human health concerns are correlated with exposure to the RF radiations. The associated health issues with EM radiation exposure have been an open research topic for decades.…”