EMFSA November 2025 Newsletter Updates – in this newsletter we look at the following topics:

Offshore Wind Farms

Can offshore wind production affect the structure and function of marine ecosystems? What could the potential impacts be?

We take a look at a report by the Eklipse Expert Group on Impacts of Offshore Wind Farm Expansion 

Citation: Cervantes, A., Pace, F., Gallaou, E., Kadiri, M., Velázquez, J., Fernandes, M., Langridge, J., Scott, AJ., Sieber, I.M., Bhatia, S., Limache de la Fuente, D., Maureaud, A.A., Dajka, J (2025). State of knowledge regarding the impacts of offshore wind farm expansion: what are the consequences for achieving Good Environmental Status across European marine waters? Report prepared by an Eklipse Expert Working Group. DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.17064612

Flora and Fauna: How Nonhuman Species Interact With Natural and Man-Made EMF at Ecosystem Levels — and Public Policy Recommendations

The authors of this article call for an urgent, government-wide response that treats EMF as an air pollutant and establishes the emerging discipline of air ecology (aeroecology).

Citation: Levitt BB, Lai HC, Manville AM II, Scarato T (2025). Flora and fauna: how nonhuman species interact with natural and man-made EMF at ecosystem levels and public policy recommendations. Front. Public Health 13:1693873. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2025.1693873

Comment by EMFSA: Under South Africa’s National Environmental Management Act (NEMA 107 of 1998), the legal definition of pollution is broad enough to include different forms of energy, specifically waves. 

Pesticides – Another Environmental Pollutant of Concern

Citation: Paola Gabriela Viglietti, Lena Jäggi, Hannah Wey, Anouk Petitpierre, Christian Lindh, Kim-Louise Rousseau, Jade Mac Donnell, Martin Röösli, Susan Malcolm-Smith, Samuel Fuhrimann, Mohamed Aqiel Dalvie, Postnatal pesticide exposure and executive function in children and adolescents: Findings from South Africa, Environmental Research, Volume 289, 2026, 123310, ISSN 0013-9351, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envres.2025.123310

Terrestrial Trunked Radio (TETRA)

Terrestrial trunked radio (TETRA) is the standard digital communication system used by police and other emergency services in Great Britain. During active use, TETRA emits radiofrequency electromagnetic fields, which are potentially carcinogenic in humans. Here, using data on objective call duration, the authors examined cancer risk from personal radio use among police forces across Great Britain. No significant association was detected between radio use, call duration, and cancer risk. 

RESEARCH ARTICLE Personal radio use and risk of cancers among police officers in Great Britain: Results from the Airwave Health Monitoring Study
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ijc.70255

Radiofrequency Exposure and Cancer – ANSES Findings

On the 26/11/2025, the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES) published their findings on RFR exposure and cancer https://www.anses.fr/fr/content/exposition-aux-ondes-de-nouvelles-etudes-precisent-les-connaissances-sur-le-risque-de

Two French NGOs have provided commentary on ANSES’s report

Aviation: Persistent 5G Challenges

IATA Urges ITU to Strengthen Safeguards for Aircraft Safety Systems as 5G/6G Expands https://www.iata.org/en/pressroom/2025-releases/2025-11-20-01/

See our book recommendations for the festive season!

(Image used with permission of the author)

EMFSA November 2025 Newsletter Updates  https://mailchi.mp/emfsa/emfsa-november-2025-newsletter

Further reading: Maritime 5G and Marine Ecosystems https://www.emfsa.co.za/news/maritime-5g-and-marine-ecosystems/

The post EMFSA November 2025 Newsletter Updates appeared first on EMFSA.

BY: TERENCE CREAMER CREAMER MEDIA EDITOR

The Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (DMRE) has clarified that it is aiming to release bid documentation for the so-called fifth bid window (BW5) of the South Africa’s renewable-energy procurement programme in December, following receipt of the regulator’s concurrence with a Ministerial determination that clears the way for the resumption of procurement.

The Section 34 Ministerial determination has not yet been formally published in the Government Gazette, but the DMRE indicated to Engineering News & Mining Weekly on Monday that it intended Gazetting the document “before the end of next week”, having received the National Energy Regulator of South Africa’s concurrence on September 2.

On September 11, the Political Task Team on Eskom, which is chaired by Deputy President David Mabuza, stated that the DMRE would open-up various bid-windows, including BW5, and that the “process will be completed in December 2020”.

Besides a procurement allocation of 6 800 MW for onshore wind and solar photovoltaic generators, the determination also caters for 3 000 MW of gas to power, 1 500 MW of new coal and 513 MW of energy storage. In total, the determination opens the way for the procurement of 11 813 MW.

Snippet

There is currently some concern in the market about the technical specifications in the bid documentation, which some observers believe favour expensive fossil-fuel-based solutions.

Read the full article at https://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/dmre-targeting-december-for-initiation-of-fifth-renewables-bid-window-2020-09-14#.X19QQC5pB0o.twitter

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