While selling 5G technology to the public as a means for faster downloads, Big Wireless — comprising a web of telecom companies, lobbyists and law firms– is spending millions to lobby governments the world over to implement the next generation of cellular technology because of its potential for data collection and surveillance of citizens.
by Derrick Broze
Part 5 - 5G Conspiracy Theorists?
Despite the diverse credentials of the mass movement against 5G, the opposition has largely been derided as conspiracy theorists or quacks who don’t understand the electromagnetic spectrum. In March 2019, William Broad of the New York Times wrote a piece promoting the idea that those who are concerned about the health effects of 5G are simply falling prey to Russian propaganda designed to make America lose the Race to 5G. His article, “Your 5G Phone Won’t Hurt You. But Russia Wants You to Think Otherwise.”, sought to place the blame for concern around 5G on the shoulders of America’s favorite boogeyman – The Russians.
This practice seems to be a new trend for corporate media as the Washington Post announced a similar deal with ATT in November 2019. Questions regarding potential conflicts of interest have not been addressed between news outlets attacking those critical of 5G’s safety and telecom companies who fund them.
Interestingly, only a month after Broad’s article, in April 2019 the Times announced a partnership with Verizon to showcase a “5g journalism lab”. Broad wrote a second piece titled “The 5G Health Hazard That Isn’t”, attacking the critics of the rush to 5G and attempting to paint the opposition as being based on one single study which he says was found to be false.
Dr. Devra Davis, PhD, President of the Environmental Health Trust, responded to Broad’s claim by noting that “by relegating concerns about 5G to a Russian ploy, he misses altogether the fact that the purportedly independent international authorities on which he relies that declare 5G to be safe are an exclusive club of industry-loyal scientists. China, Russia, Poland, Italy and several other European countries allow up to hundreds of times less wireless radiation into the environment from microwave antennas than does the U.S..”
Davis went even further, comparing the treatment of those who raise awareness about the public impact of radio frequency microwave radiation to that of those scientists in the 1950’s and 60’s who attempted to ring alarm bells about the dangers of tobacco. Davis wrote,
Scientists who showed the harmful impacts of tobacco found themselves struggling for serious attention and financial support. For health impacts from wireless radiation, a similar pattern is emerging. Each time a U.S. government agency produced positive findings, research on health impacts was defunded. The Office of Naval Research, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, and the Environmental Protection Agency all once had vibrant research programs documenting dangers of wireless radiation. All found their programs scrapped, reflecting pressure from those who sought to suppress this work.
These forces which “sought to suppress this work” have indeed been operating and influencing public policy on cellular technology for decades.
This cursory look at the history of the FCC, the CTIA, and the cell phone industry show clear conflicts of interests and suppression of research. Now, these same forces are calling on the public to embrace the Race to 5G. While most of the public is unaware of this history, understanding the corporate and lobbyist influence on the scientific research and light regulatory touch, is absolutely imperative as the world prepares to be surrounded by the devices and infrastructure of the emerging 5G industry.
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