17 May 2020

5G safety: what does the peer reviewed science say?

Using Wikipedia and Media Bias/Fact Check to evaluate reliability of 48 peer reviewed academic articles or books and their conclusions using the search terms "biological effects radiofrequency radiation" or similar, in light of the gradual roll-out of fifth generation (5G) mobile phone infrastructure.

Some problems:

Apparently, fake scientists lacking credentials but claiming to find harm from microwave signals have successfully submitted to journals and been accepted (one was via Hindawi).

Engineering societies seem to be getting their popular magazines indexed on scholarly websites alongside peer reviewed content (see those flagged IEEE sources below), making it look like the professionals and enthusiasts in the sector are somehow neutral scientists.

30 articles from Google Scholar on non-ionizing/radiofrequency radiation health risks


Harmful/possibly harmful:
https://academic.oup.com/occmed/article/53/2/123/1519746 Occupational Medicine (Oxford University Press journal) - RELIABLE, 17 YEARS OLD
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00039899809605701 Archives of Environmental and Occupational Health - RELIABLE, 23 YEARS OLD
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0304394003014149 Neuroscience Letters - RELIABLE, 16 YEARS OLD
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S147751311200054X Journal of Pediatric Urology - RELIABLE, 7 YEARS OLD
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0753332207002909 Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy - RELIABLE, 12 YEARS OLD
[...+ 50 search results...]
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/09553002.2013.809170 International Journal of Radiation Biology - RELIABLE, 7 YEARS OLD
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0006291X15003988 Biochemical and Biophysical Research Communications - RELIABLE, 5 YEARS OLD
https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/055699v3.full bioRxiv - UNRELIABLE, 2 YEARS OLD
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/15368378.2013.869752 Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine - RELIABLE, 7 YEARS OLD
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/1478-4505-8-2 Health Research Policy and Systems - RELIABLE, 10 YEARS OLD

Score: 9

Harmless/inconclusive:
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/16070658.1979.11689176 Journal of Microwave Power - RELIABLE, 41 YEARS OLD
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/924919 IEEE Microwave Magazine - UNRELIABLE, 19 YEARS OLD
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0079612306620074 Progress in Brain Research - RELIABLE, 13 YEARS OLD
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/989978 IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques - RELIABLE, 18 YEARS OLD
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/1266063 IEEE Microwave Magazine - UNRELIABLE, 17 YEARS OLD
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/bem.10166 Bioelectromagnetics - RELIABLE, 17 YEARS OLD
https://oem.bmj.com/content/39/2/105.short Occupational and Environmental Medicine - RELIABLE, 38 YEARS OLD
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/499768 IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, UNRELIABLE, 24 YEARS OLD
https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/doi/full/10.1289/ehp.9633 Environmental Health Perspectives - RELIABLE, 13 YEARS OLD
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/tera.1420260312 Birth Defects Research - RELIABLE, 38 YEARS OLD
[...+ 50 search results...]
http://www.dl.begellhouse.com/journals/4b27cbfc562e21b8,1279f8172a33ead5,48fda0935b1b7699.html Critical Reviews in Biomedical Engineering - RELIABLE, 17 YEARS OLD
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09553008614551211 International Journal of Radiation Biology - RELIABLE, 35 YEARS OLD
https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=eblAAQAAQBAJ&oi Academic Press - RELIABLE, 8 YEARS OLD
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/44c1/d6b2e3686cfc7f9421789af83b00ff5048c8.pdf InTechOpenUNRELIABLE, 8 YEARS OLD
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/(SICI)1096-9926(199904)59:4%3C287::AID-TERA13%3E3.0.CO;2-Y Birth Defects Research - RELIABLE, 21 YEARS OLD
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0369811406001313 Pathologie Biologie - RELIABLE, 13 YEARS OLD
https://inis.iaea.org/search/search.aspx?orig_q=RN:33045544 Radiation Protection in Australasia - UNRELIABLE, 19 YEARS OLD
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10934529.2011.607037 Journal of Environmental Science and Health Part A - RELIABLE, 9 YEARS OLD
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007%2F0-306-46899-9_15 Springer Science+Business Media - RELIABLE, 22 YEARS OLD
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6513191/ Biomolecules & Therapeutics - RELIABLE, 2 YEARS OLD

Score: 15


18 (all searchable) PubMed articles on non-ionizing/radiofrequency radiation health risks (reviews):


Harmful/possibly harmful:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/30533171 Hindawi - UNRELIABLE, 2 YEARS OLD
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28729909 BioMed Central - RELIABLE, 0 YEARS OLD
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28401165 Hindawi UNRELIABLE, 3 YEARS OLD
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25211777 International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health - RELIABLE, 6 YEARS OLD
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23678539 Indian Journal of Experimental Biology - RELIABLE, 7 YEARS OLD
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20429163 Reviews on Environmental Health - RELIABLE, 10 YEARS OLD
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18242044 Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy - RELIABLE, 12 YEARS OLD
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17620203 Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health - RELIABLE, 13 YEARS OLD

Score: 6

Harmless/inconclusive:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31540320 International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health - RELIABLE, 1 YEAR OLD
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24162060 Health Physics - RELIABLE, 7 YEARS OLD
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21924280 Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology - RELIABLE, 9 YEARS OLD
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21480304 Bioelectromagnetics - RELIABLE, 9 YEARS OLD
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20955816 Mutation Research - RELIABLE, 10 YEARS OLD
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20183523 Journal of Toxicology and Environmental Health - RELIABLE, 11 YEARS OLD
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19708776 Radiation Research - RELIABLE, 11 YEARS OLD
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16019928 International Journal of Radiation Biology - RELIABLE, 15 YEARS OLD
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14508584 Radiation and Environmental Biophysics - RELIABLE, 17 YEARS OLD
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10570577 Canadian Journal of Public Health - RELIABLE, 21 YEARS OLD

Score: 10

Final tally:
Scientists say it's harmful/possibly harmful = 15
Scientists say it's harmless/the studies are inadequate = 25

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