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Brussels government approves increase in 5G radiation standards

Editor — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 19:08:59 +0000

Source: The Brussels Times https://www.brusselstimes.com/brussels/188495/brussels-government-approves-increase-in-5g-radiation-standards/

Friday, 08 October 2021

The Brussels government has approved the preliminary draft ordinance at first reading that increases the current emission standard of 6 V/m (volts per metre) to 14.57 V/m outdoors and 9.19 V/m indoors, including radio and television antennas.

The text fleshes out the essential recommendations of the Citizens’ Commission on the modalities of rolling out 5G in the Brussels Region, Environment Minister Alain Maron told the Belga news agency.

The limited increase in the emission standard for non-ionising radiation takes into account the precautionary and standstill principles and the protection of the health of all Brussels residents, he added.

Obligations are imposed on operators regarding the environmental impact in terms of energy and waste associated with 5G and limiting the boom in digitalisation.

The current emission standard of 6 V/m (volts per metre) will be increased to 14.57 V/m outdoors and 9.19 V/m indoors, including radio and television antennas.

“That standard remains the strictest in the country, and is far below the recommendations of the ICNIRP (International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection) or the World Health Organisation,” Maron stressed in an announcement.

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Brussels relaxes radiation norms for 5G roll-out

Editor — Sat, 24 Jul 2021 12:56:43 +0000

Brussels relaxes radiation norms for 5G roll-out https://t.co/f98HyrggzN
— Flandersnews.be (@flandersnews) July 24, 2021

The Brussels Regional Government is relaxing radiation norms to allow the roll-out of a new 5G telecommunications network in the Belgian and Flemish capital. “As the capital of Europe Brussels can’t afford to stick behind” the government says.

Colin Clapson

The radiation norm setting out how much radiation will be permitted is being increased to 14.5 V / m. The decision means Brussels still has the strictest norm in the country. It is below values recommended by the World Health Organisation and the International Commission on Non-Ionising Radiation Protection.

The Brussels government was acting on the basis of the second report of the 5G co-ordination platform and recommendations from the 5G consultative committees. Brussels also hopes to limit the impact this new technology will have on the environment as much as possible.

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‘Wider debate’ needed before 5G rollout, says Brussels government chief

Editor — Wed, 09 Sep 2020 10:55:28 +0000

Brussels residents who oppose the technology need more convincing, Rudi Vervoort told POLITICO.

By SIMON VAN DORPE AND LAURENS CERULUS

9/1/20, 5:25 PM CET Updated 9/1/20, 5:25 PM CET

Brussels needs to have a wider debate about 5G before the technology can be fully rolled out across the Belgian capital, according to the head of the region’s government.

Rudi Vervoort, minister-president of Brussels’ regional government, said public concerns about the purported health impact of 5G networks means politicians and interest groups still need to convince Brussels residents about the technology’s benefits.

“We are not against testing zones, for example at the airport or in the European quarter,” Vervoort told POLITICO in an interview conducted at the end of August. But, he added: “To make it more widely available, I think that will need a wider debate.”

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5G Rollout Belgium

Editor — Wed, 01 Apr 2020 10:11:40 +0000

5G is coming to Belgium – initially covering 30 municipalities, including Zaventem (where Brussels Airport is located), Hasselt, Namur and Bruges.

Initially the arrival of 5G in Belgium was slowed down by political disagreements on the distribution of the proceeds. An arrangement granting provisional rights was proposed pending a political agreement.

Why is Brussels excluded?

The radiation standards in Brussels “are almost 50 times stricter” than what EU and WHO guidelines call for, according to Bianca Debaets, a member of the Brussels Parliament. In October, the Brussels’ Minister for the Environment Alain Maron, stated the need for more certainty about the impact of 5G waves on people’s health.

To read the full article, please see:

Jason Spinks, The Brussels Times https://www.brusselstimes.com/all-news/belgium-all-news/103718/5g-brussels-left-behind-in-belgian-rollout/

Telecom provider Proximus calls it a “5G light” network.

Wednesday, 01 April 2020 Chini, The Brussels Times

https://www.brusselstimes.com/belgium/103967/where-can-you-get-5g-in-belgium/

https://www.brusselstimes.com/all-news/business/97802/5g-to-be-launched-in-belgium/

More on the topic:

Proximus partly stops ‘5G light’ deployment in Belgium

14 April 2020

Proximus has stopped the roll-out of its “5G light” technology on the territory of the municipality of Ottignies-Louvain-la-Neuve in the Walloon-Brabant province.

The municipality reacted badly when, at the end of last month, it appeared that 5G was being installed on its territory. There had been no prior consultation, and the municipality did not consider the timing, in the middle of the new coronavirus (Covid-19) crisis, appropriate either.

The municipal council demanded that Proximus stop the roll-out on 31 March, and the operator has responded that it will, the municipality announced on its website. Proximus is also committed to participating in a public information session to explain the project to the citizens, it added.

The network does not cover Brussels, as it exceeds the Region’s radiation standards.

To read the full article, please see https://www.brusselstimes.com/all-news/business/106352/proximus-partly-stops-5g-light-deployment-in-belgium/

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Crystallising the potential of 5G

Editor — Sat, 07 Dec 2019 10:51:51 +0000

Written by Patrizia Toia on 5 December 2019 in Opinion

About the author

Patrizia Toia (IT, S&D) is vice chair of the Parliament’s Industry, Research and Energy Committee.

The coming of 5G seems to offer huge potential but realising this safely and effectively will require detailed investigation and careful planning.

The diffusion of mobile telephony ﬁrst and the subsequent introduction of smartphones have created a “revolution in the revolution”. This is because they have brought all the disruptive power of digital technology into the pockets of all citizens, opening the door to a range of applications that are fundamentally changing our society and our economy.

However, all these innovations have hit a limit created by the capacity of mobile devices to connect to the internet with sufficient bandwidth, reliability and minimal latency.

The introduction of the ﬁfth generation of mobile connection, 5G, now promises to overcome the current limitations of existing mobile devices. More importantly, 5G could enable a new wave of technologies and applications, based on its novel infrastructure for smart cities, advanced manufacturing, healthcare systems and connected cars.

This is why every country in the world is investing in accelerating this change. The USA, China, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Singapore and Taiwan are competing with EU to be the ﬁrst to develop a fully-functioning 5G network and reap the potential beneﬁts for the economy.

The European Union’s connectivity goals for 2025 – including 5G coverage in all urban areas – is set out in its Communication on Connectivity for a Competitive Digital Single Market – Towards a European Gigabit Society. It foresees a budget estimated at €500 billion.

However, the introduction of 5G is a more complicated issue than a simple international race of investments and deployment. There are doubts over the safety of the new wireless connections, which are slowing down the deployment of the new 5G infrastructure.

This is why work on 5G infrastructure in the city of Brussels has stopped. Moreover, public and private actors are reluctant to invest large sums in a technology where the business model that will transform those investments into proﬁts remains nebulous.

These are urgent issues that have to be addressed at European level. This is why I recently forwarded a written question to the European Commission on the assessment of the impact of 5G in real world conditions.

A study recently presented to the European Parliament’s Committee on Industry, Research and Energy noted that the impact of 5G technology and radiation in real world conditions is still to be properly assessed; indeed, it is not yet possible to do this accurately.

‘No rush’ to bring 5G network to Brussels, says Environment Minister

Editor — Sun, 13 Oct 2019 13:24:53 +0000

‘No rush’ to bring 5G network to Brussels, says Environment Minister

Thursday, 10 October 2019

The Brussels Minister for the Environment, Alain Maron, does not want to rush the launch of the 5G network in Brussels.

“Until now, Brussels Environment and the operators were unable to measure the 5G network objectively,” Maron said in the Environment Committee, reports Bruzz. “In any case, I will not take any further steps in this matter as long as Brussels Environment cannot offer me the necessary technical guarantees,” he added.

“The 5G network cannot be established in Brussels, or Belgium, for as long as the Federal government is not putting up the 5G licences for sale,” said Maron. “And as long as the licences are not for sale, there is no rush,” he added.

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European Parliament Brussels: 5G, Health Risks and the Precautionary Principle

Editor — Fri, 04 Oct 2019 13:01:20 +0000

03/10/2019

Article translated from German.

Extracts only.

Link to original article in German:

https://www.oedp.de/aktuelles/pressemitteilungen/newsdetails/news/5g-gesundheitsrisiken-und-vorsorgeprinzip/?fbclid=IwAR1HY1dgMxuq4o1JQg7ayc9SpdwNqZCgBYlDtU15Dub0fYv4zCcAu7GP6PY

(Brussels / 03.10.2019) While the European Commission is preparing to publish a 5G risk assessment on cybersecurity, MEPs Philippe Lamberts, Klaus Buchner and Michèle Rivasi (Green Group / EFA) condemn the blatant lack of biological and environmental studies on 5G radiation and promptly request a study on the effects of 5G on health, even before the massive use of this technology. Without studies, the application of the precautionary principle to 5G is justified.

There are currently no studies on the biological effects of true 5G radiation. The scientific literature of recent decades on the biological effects of electromagnetic fields indicates several deleterious effects, including the nervous system, oxidative stress, hormonal imbalances, and excessive calcium signals in cells. For each of these effects alone there are 12 to 35 review articles on the scientific research results.

5G has a number of peculiarities compared to previous wireless standards: a frightening increase in the number of antennas required, the very high powers announced to ensure the penetration of short-wave radiation into buildings, the high absorption of electromagnetic waves from 5G on the surface of organisms insects, birds and trees and the exceptionally high pulses of 5G signals, which are biologically even more active than those of previous generations of mobile radio. These are all factors that raise the suspicion of similar or more serious harmful effects of 5G radiation on wildlife, plants and humans than the previous radio radiation. That’s why we need biological impact assessments as soon as possible to address serious health concerns.

Quote from French MEP Michele Rivasi (EELV): “The unbridled development of 5G will be accompanied by an increase in environmental radiation power, and who will benefit from this new wave of electromagnetic waves that they impose on us. With what health risks? The more people are exposed to radiation, the more people get sick from the effects of electromagnetic radiation, we do not want to endure pollution and become guinea pigs of industrialists, the right to live in an environment without radio waves ‘must be recognized and the precautionary principle applied!”

Prof. Klaus Buchner, German Democrat of the Ecological Democratic Party (ÖDP): “5G technology raises public health issues, but it also allows for full monitoring in the form of tracking applications, such as in your refrigerator. tracking what you eat, or through facial recognition via cameras in your TV, such applications are designed to collect valuable information for individualized advertising that may be misused for other purposes as well Helping us to be influenced can be much greater, so that, for example, an election bias as done by Cambridge Analytica can be perfected. ”

Philippe Lamberts, Belgian Member of the Ecolo Party, Co-Chair of the Greens / EFA Group: “I am neither a blind technology fan nor a skeptic, as an engineer I know that technology can be as useful as it is dangerous. The enthusiasm for 5G is based on industry arguments, but without real social benefits, so it is imperative to wait and take the time to find out at the end of the day what 5G really can do for us, the European citizens. ”

MORATORIA RATE IN EUROPE

In the framework of the workshop “5G, Health Risks and Precautionary Principle“, which took place in the European Parliament on 1 October, politicians, scientists and citizens from France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland requested that studies are conducted on the effects of 5G radiation on life, health and the environment. Without this prior assessment, the precautionary principle must be applied and a moratorium must be decided on the use of 5G, as, for example, in three Swiss cantons and by many municipalities in Belgium and Italy.

“At the moment, we do not have any studies based on real 5G signals and their effects on animals, the same goes for 4G, the problem is that we used all of these technologies without testing for bio-safety.” The existing guidelines are flawed, because they do not study non-thermal, carcinogenic or reprotoxic effects, “said Professor of Biochemistry and Medicine Martin Pall (Washington State University, USA).

Dr. Marc Arazi, President of the PhoneGate Alert Association, educates consumers about deception and general concealment of the actual levels of physical cell phone radiation: “What should we think about the launch of the new 5G phones? We can no longer trust the cell phone manufacturers who knowingly exposed to far greater levels of radiation than the statutory limits set by health risks would have allowed. ”

Maurizio Martucci, of Stop5G European Alliance, says: “We are mobilizing against 5G because the population has been forced to vote for 5G, 40 municipalities in Italy have already voted for a 5G moratorium and on 7 October a national moratorium is under discussion in Italy. The European Alliance Stop5G calls for an international moratorium as long as no more thorough scientific studies are available. ”

Contacts:
Michele Rivasi: T +33 608 92 46 00
michele.rivasieuroparl.europa.eu
Philippe Lamberts:
philippe.lambertseuroparl.europa.eu
Klaus Buchner:
klaus.buchnereuroparl.europa.eu

Original article in German https://www.oedp.de/aktuelles/pressemitteilungen/newsdetails/news/5g-gesundheitsrisiken-und-vorsorgeprinzip/?fbclid=IwAR1HY1dgMxuq4o1JQg7ayc9SpdwNqZCgBYlDtU15Dub0fYv4zCcAu7GP6PY

Added notes by EMFSA

Phonegate: Dr Arazi’s alert launched at the European Parliament 5G – Health Risk and the Precautionary Principle: A New Rationale

France: NGOs call for moratorium on deployment of 5G

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