Plain words on 5G

Dear all, the President of the Austrian Medical Association is also warning about 5G.

Publication of the presentation: “Österreichischer Infrastrukturreport 2020” (Austrian Infrastructure Report 2020) | Infrastructure symposium Future Business Austria – “Zukunftsinfrastruktur 5G: Vom digitalen Traum zur Wirklichkeit” (Future infrastructure 5G: from digital dream to reality). 4 November 2019, Novomatic Forum

On 3 February 2020, Univ.-Prof. Dr Thomas Szekeres himself published the speech he gave on 4 November 2019 at the Novomatic Forum at the infrastructure symposium Future Business Austria, “Future infrastructure 5G: from digital dream to reality”.

Univ.-Prof. Dr Thomas Szekeres, President of the Austrian and the Vienna Medical Association (image: ÖÄK)

Ladies and gentlemen, dear colleagues,

I am delighted to be able to take part today in this very interesting event of the Austrian Infrastructure Report 2020, entitled “Future infrastructure 5G: from digital dream to reality”. The discussion about 5G technology is a very important and, above all, a very many-sided one, and it is surely up to those in charge to make sure that the dream that is to become reality does not turn out to be a nightmare.

I do not want to start a quarrel here today, but as a representative of health I would like to look at the discussion from a different angle, and perhaps we can then discuss one argument or another. The fact is that neither opponents nor supporters of mobile communications can present long-term studies. That is why both sides will, and should, call for them.

It is also a fact that in 2011 the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classified radiofrequency radiation as possibly carcinogenic to humans (Group 2B), on the basis of epidemiological studies on brain tumours. Since then, additional studies have strengthened the assumption of a causal link between mobile phone use and cancer.

Leading scientists have concluded that high-frequency electromagnetic radiation should be classified as a definite human carcinogen (Group 1). In medicine, however, we are also increasingly seeing the consequences of inappropriate use, such as addiction, behavioural disorders or an increased risk of accidents through distraction. So the question is: has harm to human health from mobile phone radiation been demonstrated so far? Well, there are already several court rulings worldwide, even rulings by supreme courts, that unequivocally recognise health damage caused by mobile phone radiation.

On the basis of the information available so far, the roll-out of 5G must be expected to bring a further – and indeed considerable – increase in the high-frequency exposure of the population, which is already too intense in many places. From a medical point of view, transmitting huge amounts of data by microwave technology in people’s immediate living environment must be regarded as a wrong turn.

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