With all of this 5G talk going around, I have a few questions. I would like to state- I am NOT someone who thinks 5G is any sort of conspiracy- I just want facts to be able to argue with those who do. (I have some relatives that are VERY against it) Moving on…
Everyone seems to say 5G is safe because it’s non-ionizing.
However, if I look at the elecromagnetic spectrum, I can see that Microwaves are also non-ionizing. I use microwaves every day to heat up my food. This seems like it would be dangerous to a human.
What’s the difference between these two waves (other than wavelength, obviously), and why don’t I have to worry about 5G towers hurting me?
I guess my true question is why don’t cell and radio towers hurt people? They must be high powered to travel long distances- but microwaves are relatively low powered home devices that absolutey can hurt people.
In: Physics
There’s a few different ways the EM spectrum can ruin your day. The common ones are:
1. Ionizing radiation – Short wavelength, so short it can jiggle your DNA around. Most jiggled DNA is either repaired or results in cell death. Some small percentage will result in cancer.
2. Exciting molecules in your body – This is what microwaves do to food. They excite water molecules and get them all bouncing around and making heat. Microwaves of a wavelength small enough to interact with you, and a power level high enough to heat you up, are no bueno. Don’t cook yourself in a giant microwave kids.
3. Inducing current – Radio waves can induce an electrical current in a conductive material. This is how radio antennas work. For most applications that current is *very* small. However if you were to grab the conductive part of a large radio mast and then ground yourself you’d be a crispy critter. So don’t do that.
5G towers are on the radio end of the spectrum and are operating at a maximum power output of about 120W. Same as a decently bright lightbulb, and about 10 times less powerful than an average microwave oven. They’re using a frequency that doesn’t meaningfully interact with humans, and a power level so low you’d have to really try quite hard to generate enough of a current do do any damage with it.
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