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The head of the country’s peak telecommunications body has slammed a WhistleOut survey which claimed one in four Australians had safety concerns about 5G. The survey of 1000 Australians by the telco comparison site found one in ten people thought 5G made them more susceptible to COVID-19 and 27 per cent held concerns about 5G and spying. More than half of respondents said they wouldn’t buy a house too close to a 5G tower. Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association chief executive Chris Althaus said decades of research found no evidence of 5G causing health or safety issues. “[The technology] is just another way of using radio waves, just like 4G, 3G, 2G, AM and FM radio, television and microwave ovens,” he said. “If you were that concerned about 5G you’d have to turn off 4G, 3G, radio, television … because 5G is no different to any of those things.” Mr Althaus said he rejected the results of the survey, and said studies like the WhistleOut study were “not particularly helpful.” “It’s always hard to judge because you don’t know the samples you don’t know the questions they’ve asked,” he said. “With surveys of this kind, you can kind of get the answer you want depending on how you ask the question. On the safety of 5G, the World Health Organisation states: “to date there is no evidence to conclude that exposure to low level electromagnetic fields is harmful to human health.” Dr Sarah Loughran, director of the Australian Centre for Electromagnetic Bioeffects Research at the University of Wollongong, said higher frequencies of 5G “actually mean that the energy doesn’t penetrate as deeply into the body than previous fourth generation, and other generation, technologies have.” Former chief medical officer Professor Brendan Murphy said earlier this year the technology was not proven to be hazardous to human health.
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The head of the country’s peak telecommunications body has slammed a WhistleOut survey which claimed one in four Australians had safety concerns about 5G.
The survey of 1000 Australians by the telco comparison site found one in ten people thought 5G made them more susceptible to COVID-19 and 27 per cent held concerns about 5G and spying.
More than half of respondents said they wouldn’t buy a house too close to a 5G tower.
Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association chief executive Chris Althaus said decades of research found no evidence of 5G causing health or safety issues.
“[The technology] is just another way of using radio waves, just like 4G, 3G, 2G, AM and FM radio, television and microwave ovens,” he said.
“If you were that concerned about 5G you’d have to turn off 4G, 3G, radio, television … because 5G is no different to any of those things.”
Mr Althaus said he rejected the results of the survey, and said studies like the WhistleOut study were “not particularly helpful.”
“It’s always hard to judge because you don’t know the samples you don’t know the questions they’ve asked,” he said.
“With surveys of this kind, you can kind of get the answer you want depending on how you ask the question.
On the safety of 5G, the World Health Organisation states: “to date there is no evidence to conclude that exposure to low level electromagnetic fields is harmful to human health.”
Dr Sarah Loughran, director of the Australian Centre for Electromagnetic Bioeffects Research at the University of Wollongong, said higher frequencies of 5G “actually mean that the energy doesn’t penetrate as deeply into the body than previous fourth generation, and other generation, technologies have.”
Former chief medical officer Professor Brendan Murphy said earlier this year the technology was not proven to be hazardous to human health.
Australian Mobile Telecommunications Association chief executive Chris Althaus said those concerned about 5G should also give up radio and TV. Picture: Shutterstock
