The international consensus workshop “Societal and ethical impacts of 5G technology” will be held on the afternoon of Monday 26th May 2025 in a hybrid format: online and at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) in Barcelona (Spain).
The seminar is a joint activity of the Cluster on Electromagnetic fields Exposure and Health (CLUE-H) and is being organized by researchers of the EU funded GOLIAT Project. An important aim of GOLIAT is to foster broad interdisciplinary discourse on the societal and ethical implications of 5G technology. This workshop will focus on some wider challenges to risk perception, communication, and trust, uncertainty management, and other ethical issues such as collective and individual responsibility. Participation is open to anyone interested in this topics and diverse perspectives and reflections will be much valued. All workshop participants will receive a certificate of attendance documenting their involvement, as well as the report from the meeting.
Any practical questions can be directed towards Project Manager Gabriela P. Peralta gabriela.peralta@isglobal.org, ISGlobal. For questions about the program, contact the workshop organizer Rani Lill Anjum rani.anjum@nmbu.no, Norwegian University of Life Sciences.
A GOLIAT pilot study involving 44 volunteers has assessed whether exposure to 5G induces changes in the autonomic nervous system. The study, led by researchers from INERIS, found that exposure to 5G may be associated with a small but statistically significant increase in body temperature and a minimal modulation of certain electrodermal metrics. The results are published in the journal Experimental Physiology.
The research team chose skin temperature and electrodermal activity, which measures the electrical conductance of the skin, as markers of autonomic nervous system responses. In a laboratory in France, a set was built using an antenna and a 5G generator to simulate exposure levels that are currently found in the environment.
In two randomised and blinded sessions within one week, the 44 young volunteers were exposed either to real 5G emissions or to sham sessions with no radiofrequency emissions. During these sessions, the researchers recorded the volunteers’ electroencephalograms and electrocardiograms, and measured their body temperatures at the hands, neck and head. In parallel, a series of 10 beeps were emitted during each session to assess, using two electrodes placed in the volunteers’ fingers, whether these auditory signals elicited any skin conductance responses.
The results showed some changes in body temperature after the experiment. While there was no change in the temperature of the hands, there was a slight increase in the temperature of the head and neck at the end of the sessions.
“The increase in temperature in the head and neck could be explained by the fact that the main beam of the antenna was directed at these parts of the body and therefore received the maximum exposure intensity, while the hands were placed on the table and received a lower level of electromagnetic field,” says Layla Jamal, researcher at INERIS and first author of the study.
In terms of electrodermal activity, the researchers observed that the auditory signals sent to the participants were associated with a decrease in global mean skin conductance, as well as some changes in other parameters of electrodermal activity.
“The observed change in global mean skin conductance suggests that exposure to 5G may affect our physiological response to an auditory stimulus. In addition, we found a decrease in latency, the time between the beeps and the body’s response to them, which could indicate a faster or more efficient cognitive response,” says Brahim Selmaoui, researcher at INERIS and last author of the study.
“In any case, we must point out that all the differences observed, although statistically significant, are small in absolute terms and within normal physiological ranges. This is a preliminary study with a small sample size, so further research is needed before we can draw any conclusions,” adds Dr Selmaoui.
One of the biggest difficulties that scientists face is how to translate research results into society so that they have a real impact. To help in this task, Project GOLIAT has presented a short guide that brings together 7 basic recommendations for scientists who wish to use advocacy to get their results translated into action by politicians or administrations. The document was written by Alberto Rocamora, from the Policy team at the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal) and is aimed at scientists with no previous experience in policy.
One of the primary goals of the ETAIN project is to assess how much 5G radiation power is absorbed by insects when exposed to specific levels of radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF-EMFs). The research aims to understand how this absorbed power varies across different insect species and their developmental stages.
A key focus of the project is on the potential impact of RF-EMFs on biodiversity, particularly insect pollinators. To investigate this, a longitudinal experiment is being conducted where insect trapping is carried out over time in regions consistently exposed to RF-EMFs.
Several experiments are underway in Greece, in collaboration with Ellinikos Georgikos Organismos Dimitra, to examine how 5G radiation affects bees. The experiment consists of two rooms: a control room and an exposed room. Each room contains a Styrofoam box housing beehives. The exposed room has 5G radiation levels higher than what is typically found outdoors but similar to the exposure experienced during phone usage. The control room, isolated by electromagnetic field (EMF) absorbing material, is exposed to normal environmental levels.
To maintain accuracy, the experiment is conducted in areas free from external RF-EMF interference. The bees are allowed to leave the boxes to forage, while their hive activity, influenced by seasonal shifts, is continuously monitored.
In addition to the bee study, parallel research in Montpellier focuses on fruit flies, another critical species for biodiversity research. Stay tuned for further updates as these studies progress and reveal more about the effects of 5G radiation on insect life.
Does EMF exposure pose a risk to human health? NextGEM’s main goal is to answer this question, and it investigates it through many lines of research. The objective is to assess the effects of RF exposure across various frequency bands using both in vitro and in vivo biological models. In this context, three NextGEM partners showcased how they conduct their research.
Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC, from Spain) use the nematode C.elegans to assess possible biological effects of EMF. C.elegans serve as an initial screening tool for evaluating possible EMF effects, helping to shed light on potential human-scale impacts. The following video shows the similarities between these worms’ biology and the human body’s:
The Institute for Electromagnetic Sensing of the Environment at the National Research Council of Italy (IREA-CNR) has a Bioelectromagnetics Laboratory, which is fully equipped to conduct experiments in diverse frequency ranges. There, human cell cultures and C.elegans are used to investigate the effects of RF exposure across different frequency ranges on cancer-related outcomes:
Belgian NextGEM partners Sciensano, on their side, showed us the premises of the Belgian Scientific Institute of Public Service (ISSeP), where they have assembled an EMF exposure system for human testing. They will conduct short, acute exposure sessions (45 minutes) at 5G frequencies (26.5 GHz) on healthy volunteers. This study aims to explore whether the controlled exposure could influence various parameters in red blood cells:
Conferences are not only an excellent opportunity to present one’s own research and get feedback on it, but they are also ideal for exchanging ideas beyond one’s own research interests! At SRA-E, the 32nd Annual Conference “Risk in Time and Space”, of the Society for Risk Analysis Europe researchers from all over the world and from a wide range of disciplines came together to do just that. The common intersection is the research of risks. The 32nd Annual Conference took place in Athens from 2 to 5 June 2024. The researchers of SEAWave were there. The team from IU gave two oral presentations concerning the findings of their work so far.
Sarah Link and Marie Eggeling presented their research on the perception of 5G at the annual meeting of the Society for Risk Analysis – Europe. Sarah Link presented her results of a study investigating laypeople’s situational exposure perception and location preferences for 5G base stations. Marie Eggeling on the other hand presented her study results, dealing with the relationship between personal relevance of 5G and precautionary communication on EMF.
Go to SEAWave’s website!
Marie Eggeling’s presentationSarah Link’s presentation
