Health Supreme

With the UK's Digital Economy Bill set to be finalised today, new 5G microwave spectra are about to be released across the planet without adequate safety testing, writes Lynne Wycherley. Global neglect of the Precautionary Principle is opening the way to corporate profit but placing humans and ecosystems at risk, and delaying a paradigm shift towards safer connectivity. 

In his summer press conference, Tom Wheeler - former head of the CTIA, the vast telecoms lobby group, and controversial chair of the Federal Communications Commission - proposed unbridled "massive deployment" of commercial 5G transmitters, taking off in 2020. 

Anticipating "tens of billions of dollars" of economic growth, with US telecoms "first out of the gate", he warned "Stay out of the way of technological development! Turning innovation loose is far preferable to expecting ... regulators to define the future". 

With no mention of health-testing, carbon costs, or corporate responsibility, the FCC voted unaminously to go ahead by releasing swathes of untested high frequencies for private sector exploitation - so setting a trend...

Ian Phillips, from Cardiff, spent his last months warning about the risks of long exposure to radiation from mobiles. He said his job had led to him spending 100 hours a month making calls.