Australia's tin foil hat town: Greenie councillors in Byron Bay STOP the installation of 5G towers after conspiracy theorists made bizarre claims that high-speed internet is linked to infectious diseases
- Greens councillors claimed they needed 'assurances' 5G doesn't have risks
- Protesters have made unsubstantiated claims that it causes serious diseases
- There is no scientific evidence that high speed internet has any health impact
- But conspiracy theorists have wrongly linked it to the coronavirus pandemic
- Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19
A Greens-dominated council in Byron Bay has blocked the installation of 5G in the town, after protesters made bizarre claims that the waves caused serious diseases.
Councillors agreed to halt work on the Telstra tower, claiming they hadn't been given 'assurances' that high speed internet didn't affect people's health.
Protesters have battled to stop workers from accessing a mobile tower in Mullumbimy for the past month, calling the network 'unsafe and untested'.
Throughout the coronavirus crisis, conspiracy theorists have peddled unsubstantiated claims that 5G, a mobile network, can cause the virus.
Thousands of locals in Byron signed a petition to block high-speed internet from coming to the town, including members of the anti-vaccine community.
A local protester is seen in April in Mullumbimy, Byron Bay (pictured) trying to stop in installation of 5G in the town
While high-frequency waves from the likes of X-rays and ultraviolet rays can be damaging over time, 5G is a non-ionising, low-frequency wave, meaning it does not cause any internal damage to cells.
But the overwhelming scientific evidence has not persuaded activists in the town, known as Australia's hippie capital.
'We have never seen so much electromagnetic activity. What we were after was some assurance that there would be further research done on the impacts of it,' Byron Greens councillor Michael Lyon said, according to the Daily Telegraph.
'Before the development of 5G went ahead we wanted to be satisfied that there were no health risks.
'It is a divisive issue here and we wanted to be able to prove to the community it is safe.'
Residents fear 5G technology can have harmful effects on health but these claims have been debunked by the scientific community (pictured, a local protest in April)
The roll-out of 5G networks in Australia began in June 2019, with technology using a similar frequency to existing 3G and 4G networks.
The only difference with 5G is it can work at faster speeds as it uses a higher band.
Sydney University Emeritus Professor Simon Chapman, an expert in the development of cancers, said there is no evidence whatsoever that 5G - or any mobile network - causes serious illness.
'With every generation of technology rolled out we hear the same claims — for internet or radio or mobile signals. It is predictable this group would protest against 5G,' he said.
Protester Dean Jeffreys told 7 News in April he feared electromagnetic radiation from 5G would affect his immunity.
Around 200 protesters in Byron Bay (pictured in April) battled to stop 5G being brought into the area
'Especially in this age of coronavirus, you want to have your immunity as strong as you can,' he said.
Australian professor of medicine, and public health advocate John Dwyer described conspiracy claims that 5G causes the deadly virus as 'dangerous nonsense'.
He also refuted claims 5G technology is harmful to our health.
'It's right up there with wind farms causing cancer,' Professor Dwyer told Channel Seven earlier this month.
'At this time in the fight against the epidemic, this is dangerous nonsense. Even to have a few people think differently that social distancing isn't for them is a silly idea and is putting all of us at risk.'
'For some people, the idea of a conspiracy theory turns them on. Most of the time, it doesn't matter that much but in this particular case, it's dangerous.'
WHAT IS 5G AND WHAT DOES IT DO?
The evolution of the G system started in 1980 with the invention of the mobile phone which allowed for analogue data to be transmitted via phone calls.
Digital came into play in 1991 with 2G and SMS and MMS capabilities were launched.
Since then, the capabilities and carrying capacity for the mobile network has increased massively.
More data can be transferred from one point to another via the mobile network quicker than ever.
5G is expected to be 100 times faster than the currently used 4G.
Whilst the jump from 3G to 4G was most beneficial for mobile browsing and working, the step to 5G will be so fast they become almost real-time.
That means mobile operations will be just as fast as office-based internet connections.
Potential uses for 5g include:
- Simultaneous translation of several languages in a party conference call
- Self-driving cars can stream movies, music and navigation information from the cloud
- A full length 8GB film can be downloaded in six seconds.
5G is expected to be so quick and efficient it is possible it could start the end of wired connections.
By the end of 2020, industry estimates claim 50 billion devices will be connected to 5G.
The evolution of from 1G to 5G. The predicted speed of 5G is more than 1Gbps - 1,000 times greater than the existing speed of 4G and could be implemented in laptops of the future
