The WHO (2006) explains how the use of the words guidelines and standards has substantially different implications for public health and EMF radiation protection enforcement:

1. Guidelines are voluntary instruments of instructions and recommendations that are not legally mandated and therefore have no legal standing.

2. Standards are the mandatory, compulsory and legally binding instruments, i.e., laws, acts, regulations, ordinances and decrees.

They require procedures and systems to exist in order to ensure compliance with mandatory standards, i.e., an agency is mandated to check compliance through calculations and measurements in the workplace, residence and other vulnerable areas.

In summary, a standard has mandatory and legally binding instruments, monitoring and enforcement systems.

Identified were municipalities advertising having a “standard” in the form of a Telecommunications bylaw however, the municipalities purposefully do not meet the criteria to qualify as a standard but instead as a guideline.

We shall use the simple example of traffic law and bylaws. Every vehicle within the municipality must be registered and be licensed. The operating of said vehicles requires the operator to have a license that must be renewed and updated regularly. Different zones have different operating requirements such as speed, emissions, weight class, noise etc.…. There is a monitoring system through cameras, traffic inspector officials, and the public.

Finally, there is enforcement in place through fines, inspections, confiscation and court appearances. 

Furthermore, outside parties can obtain access to verifying the operations of the standard and contribute to efficacy, enhancement and progressive development.

The WHO states there is to be no internationally mandated EMF radiation standard but recommends that countries adopt their health-based EMF radiation standard from the large selection of international guidelines published, based on their tolerance of risk value toward accrued benefits to health. It could be argued that EMF radiation protection and interpretation would fall into existing legislation in South Africa with there being no national EMF radiation exposure safety standard in the country. The argument is based on the false sense of safety associated with the lack of a standard and consequently lack of surveillance of EMF exposure to the public.

Because it cannot be denied that there is the potential of harm from exposure to EMF radiation, legally binding exposure standards have been established in many countries worldwide.

Source: https://bit.ly/3HkQ4vh

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IGNIR offers science-based advice and guidance on the health and environmental effects of man-made non-ionising radiation.  Its aim is to protect people and the environment from detrimental exposure to man-made EMF pollution, and comprises three functions:
To provide advice about appropriate safety levels for man-made electromagnetic exposure
To assess published guidelines on man-made electromagnetic exposure and make its own recommendations as to which are appropriate
Provide practical and reliable assessment guidelines for surveyors and building biologists.

IGNIR has developed a set of Guidelines for electromagnetic exposure based on the peer-reviewed EUROPAEM EMF Guidelines 2016.

https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/reveh-2016-0011/html

It has three guideline groupings:
Day (D)
Night (N)
Sensitive (S)

It covers three frequency ranges:

Extremely Low Frequency

(ELF)Very Low Frequency

(VLF)Radiofrequency (RF)

Electromagnetic (EM) hygiene and safety involves minimising exposure levels that can be toxic to the environment and human health. The guidelines set forth by EUROPAEM (European Academy on Environmental Medicine) were published under open access by the international journal Reviews on Environmental Health. Although at present there are no assured safe levels of man-made EM exposure, and studies continue to show harm to living systems at very small exposure values, IGNIR’s guidance aims to help achieve substantial reduction in EM exposure.

IGNIR’s Guidelines are aimed to also help protect sensitive groups such as children, the elderly, fetuses, pregnant women, those with co-morbidity, body metal work and people with Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity (EHS).

IGNIR’s latest independent guidelines on EMF exposure are available now to download and use.

https://www.emfsa.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/IGNIR-Guidelines-2021.pdf

Source: https://ignir.org/

Added note by EMFSA:

See our February 2021 newsletter under the heading “Millimeter Waves Will Not Penetrate The Skin” https://mailchi.mp/emfsa/news

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(An extended working paper)

Abstract
Digital wireless technologies increasingly employ radiofrequency non-ionizing radiation (NIR/RFR) for wireless communication. Early wireless technology innovation focused on military, aviation, and telecommunication applications, such as radar and microwave communications. However, the 1980s saw the rollout of commercial consumer-oriented wireless cellular telecommunications systems. While concerns on adverse health effects from exposure to RFR emerged in the military-industrial context in the 1950s, it was not until the early 1990s that there was an institutional response to calls for health and safety protection guidelines. Unfortunately, these guidelines were based on NIR/RFR thermal risks only—the science and technology experts ignored and dismissed a considerable body of research finding adverse health effects from non-thermal exposures. By 2020, that body of research had grown considerably. Yet, for reasons that are unclear to concerned scientists, guidelines from the 1990s remain unchanged. This study conducts a path constitution analysis (PCA) and a retrospective ethical risk analysis (eRA) to help foster an understanding of how historical guidelines were arrived at and why they remain immutable to change. The study finds potentially unethical behaviour in a variety of institutional and organisational actors, the consequence of which is a significant risk to the health and wellbeing of adults and children.

PDF:

https://www.emfsa.co.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Wireless-Technologies-Ethical-Risk-Analysis-Working-Paper-2021.pdf

The post Wireless Technologies and the Risk of Adverse Health Effects in Society: A Retrospective Ethical Risk Analysis of Health and Safety Guidelines appeared first on EMFSA.

https://www.gsma.com/aboutus/

GSMA Europe: Adopting International RF-EMF Exposure Guidelines: Benefits for 5G Network Deployment in Russia

Extract: However, two hurdles could hinder 5G deployment: the government approval process and rules for the placement and operation of transmitting radio facilities combined with restrictive exposure limits for radio frequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMFs).

Both are legacies from the former Soviet Union and differ substantially from international guidelines and technical standards. In particular, the RF-EMF limits are significantly more restrictive yet in the view of international experts do not provide additional health protection.

Moreover, operating costs to deploy 5G under current conditions would be 10-times higher than if the updated international safety guidelines were adopted. Telecom operators also would need to install between three- to five-times more base stations, according to the study.

In March 2020, the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP) updated its international safety guidelines for all frequencies used for mobile services. The guidelines, which took into consideration 20 additional of health research, found no established health risks to anyone, including children, using mobile phones or living near base stations.

Source: https://www.gsma.com/gsmaeurope/resources/emf_russia_report/

Background – Our article of 2018:

5G – Harmonization of Electromagnetic Fields (EMF) Standards Worldwide

https://www.emfsa.co.za/news/5g-harmonization-of-electromagnetic-fields-emf-standards-w

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First published:20 April 2020 https://doi.org/10.1002/bem.22267

Grant sponsors: DARPA, grant number: HR000111810006; Milheim Foundation.

Conflicts of interest: None.

[Correction added on 22 Apr 2020, after first online publication: removed part of sentence referring to 4 W/m2].

Abstract

Current limits for exposures to nonionizing electromagnetic fields (EMF) are set, based on relatively short‐term exposures. Long‐term exposures to weak EMF are not addressed in the current guidelines. Nevertheless, a large and growing amount of evidence indicates that long‐term exposure to weak fields can affect biological systems and might have effects on human health. If they do, the public health issues could be important because of the very large fraction of the population worldwide that is exposed. We also discuss research that needs to be done to clarify questions about the effects of weak fields. In addition to the current short‐term exposure guidelines, we propose an approach to how weak field exposure guidelines for long‐term exposures might be set, in which the responsibility for limiting exposure is divided between the manufacturer, system operator, and individual being exposed.

The post Letter Setting Guidelines for Electromagnetic Exposures and Research Needs appeared first on EMFSA.

ICNIRP_Media_Release_110320

International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP)^1,2

Author Information

Guidelines_for_Limiting_Exposure_to.99797 (1)

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New ICNIRP Guidelines… nothing really new… just the same stonewalling…

New ICNIRP Guidelines will be published, any moment now, in the Health Physics journal. However, for already several months it is known what these new ICNIRP Guidelines will be…

Interestingly and importantly, ICNIRP dismisses completely:

• existence and significance of non-thermal effects
• existence of the risk of cancer in long term avid users of mobile phones
• IARC’s classification of RF as a possible human carcinogen (IARC review of science was not included in list of science reviews used by ICNIRP in preparation of the new guidelines)

Read more at:

New ICNIRP Guidelines… nothing really new… just the same stonewalling…

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Watch the video at the link below:

https://www.nzptv.org.nz/videos/is-5g-safe?fbclid=IwAR2eUNCH45NzJQh26kflcnGIXahUlzSRl_8G4DdNnBQxZAm1jXMSnhBkIak

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Umeå is a test city for 5G in Sweden

A slide from the presentation:

The post About 5G technology in Umeå – Massive MIMO, Beamforming, Millimeter waves appeared first on EMFSA.