The rollout of next-generation network data has already begun in Hackney, with the erection of 5G masts in the area, but not everybody is happy.
An anti-5G activist group has been busy protesting outside primary schools over the past few weeks in Clissold and Stoke Newington, tethering banners to the school gates and handing out leaflets to parents.
The leaflets warn of alleged health risks such as tumours and development problems posed by electromagnetic field (EMF) radiation emitted from the masts near Betty Layward primary school on Clissold Road and Grazebrook primary school on Lordship Road.
“Various councils have been pushed to look at it more,” said Jo Sellam, a local art therapist who has been campaigning against mobile radiation for over a decade. “That’s what I’d like to get Hackney to do … I’ve noticed that people tend to want to believe that their government is looking after them, but that’s not the case!”
According to the World Health Organisation (WHO): “A large number of studies have been performed over the last two decades to assess whether mobile phones pose a potential health risk. To date, no adverse health effects have been established as being caused by mobile phone use.”
Over in Hampstead, solicitor Jessica Learmond-Criqui has also been campaigning against the rollout of 5G. Her petition on 38 Degrees has almost reached its target of 6,000 signatures.
A similar anti-5G group in Belgium was successful in bringing a total halt to the rollout of 5G in Brussels earlier this year.
“We’ve been going out in Hackney speaking to people,” said Sellam. “You’ve got this sort of Big Brother technology springing up totally unopposed … People who hadn’t known about it were really appreciative and interested in it.”
Sellam’s petition, ‘Say No to EMF and 5G’, on change.org currently has 328 signatures but needs 750 to be raised at council. She said: “We got a lot of signatures every time we went out. I think people are really concerned about it.”
However, in an article in The Guardian in July, telecommunications and internet provider Three UK stated that “from a health and safety perspective, 5G deployment is no different to any other mobile technology … no harmful levels of radiation are emitted.”
