Threats to security, health, public infrastructure—and other potential costs of Canada’s 5G rollout
David Zarnett: What are we willing to sacrifice in exchange for faster downloads and self-driving cars?
By David Zarnett, MacLean’s, February 19, 2020
David Zarnett is a lecturer and undergraduate advisor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Toronto. He has a Ph.D. in political science, and his current research focuses on Canadian policy on wireless technology.
Excerpts:
“Revolutions come with a lot of hype.”
“Marketing 5G as revolutionary, however, is a curious strategy. From Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France published in 1790 to more recent research in political science, it has been shown that revolutions can be costly—and they often leave the public worse off than they were before. Today, there is good reason to believe that the imminent 5G technology may come at a considerable cost to our security, environment, health and right over how public land is used. Understanding these potential costs is important. It will help the public develop a more nuanced view of 5G and it will assist policymakers in ensuring that the right measures are put in place.”
“In contrast to the fears many have with Huawei, which are based on hypothesized scenarios rather than smoking-gun evidence, there is a large body of scientific literature dating back to at least the 1950s documenting harm from RFR. Most recently, a 2018 $30-million dollar study, conducted by the U.S. National Toxicology Program, found that radiation from 2G and 3G cell phones could damage DNA and lead to malignant tumours. According to the authors of a recent paper published in Environmental Research, there is now enough evidence to classify RFR as carcinogenic to humans. If we are to take a precautionary approach with Huawei, then surely a precautionary approach to health is warranted, too.”
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