Government green light for 5G: opponents denounce "unilateral decision"

INTERVIEW

The government is spending the second on 5G.

Despite the publication of a forum signed by 70 elected officials calling for a moratorium on this technology, Emmanuel Macron was firm on Monday.

"France will take the turn of 5G because it is the turning point of innovation", assured the President while ironing on those who would prefer "the Amish model" and the "return to the oil lamp".

On Tuesday, the executive doubled the stakes by publishing a report ordered before the summer on "the technical and health aspects of the deployment of 5G".

Report which underlines the need to develop these new networks and affirms that the health risks are, in the immediate future, non-existent.

"It's going a little fast in the job", denounces on Europe 1 Stéphen Kerckhove, general delegate of the association Agir pour l'environnement.

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"We are worried about the attitude of the public authorities which are pouring a little into permanent, verbal aggression in the case of the Head of State," laments Stéphen Kerckhove, in favor of a moratorium on 5G.

"It is a unilateral decision of the government even though we have been calling for a year, in vain, for a rigorous impact study on this subject. Jupiter must make the effort of a local stall from time to time. hostility from public opinion and from the mayors of large conurbations ", underlines the general delegate of Agir pour l'Environnement.

A "curious" report

Reassuring elected officials and citizens, however, is the aim of a report, submitted this morning to Bercy and produced by the General Inspectorate of Social Affairs (IGAS) and the General Inspectorate of Finance (IGF).

This text, which will serve as reference literature for the government's 5G roadmap, makes three observations.

First, 5G is a technology that we can hardly do without.

With the explosion of Internet traffic, 4G networks will be saturated within two years.

We must therefore take the next step.

Then France is late.

It is one of five countries, out of the 26 studied in the report, which have not yet launched a commercial 5G offer.

Decryption >>

5G: what the report submitted to the government says

The third point is the most interesting in the current debate: according to the report, 5G frequencies do not present any immediate health hazard.

Stéphen Kerchkove dismissed this conclusion out of hand.

"This report is quite curious. It takes the opposite view of the agencies working on the subject. The National Frequency Agency (ANFR) is conducting experiments on 5G which demonstrate an increase in exposure linked to the arrival of 5G in the order of 30% ", he assures us.

"The National Health Security Agency (ANSES) is also working. I do not see how these inspectors can draw conclusions while the expertise is in progress."

Debate on the health risks of 5G

In fact, the conclusions of the French national agencies will be published in the coming months and will complement the report delivered on Tuesday which is based on health studies carried out in countries where 5G is already a reality.

For example, in South Korea, a country very advanced in 5G.

In downtown Seoul, exposure to waves is equivalent to 2% of the acceptable standard.

But the authors also stress the need to evaluate in the longer term the effect of the higher frequencies that will carry 5G.

"If we wait until the last moment to take precautionary measures, we will wait a long time", Stéphen Kerchkove laments.

And the opponent thinks that this report, "which clears 5G of all suspicion (...) comes at the right time to justify the allocation of frequencies that the government is preparing to grant to operators" at the end of September.

This will mark the concrete launch of 5G just before the arrival of commercial offers among operators.