5G is rapidly overtaking other wireless technology networks and will soon become the standard for cell phone coverage.
There has been speculation that 5G is perhaps harmful to humans, as so little is still known of this technology.
Now, a study carried out by Oregon State University researchers and published in PLOS One, focused on the side effects of 5G on embryonic zebrafish, and it turns out there's very little to no health impact on them, meaning it would be the same for humans.
Fast deployment and safety
5G started being deployed worldwide last year, providing faster bandwidth, thus faster download speeds. However, very little was in fact known about its potential side effects on humans.
This is why a team at Oregon State University decided to look into the matter further, and discovered some good news.
The researchers were able to reach their conclusion by studying embryonic zebrafish. These are a model organism quite regularly used to look into interactions between environmental stressors and biological systems.
Zebrafish and humans are similar in terms of developmental processes as well as on the genomic level, so they were ideal for this case study.
In their study, the researchers exposed the zebrafish to 3.5 GHz radiofrequency radiation for two days, the typical frequency for 5G-using smartphones.
It turned out that there was very little impact on the zebrafish. The only further investigation that the team will conduct is on the embryo's response to a sudden sound, which had a modest impact on the fish.
Dasgupta also stated that their future research will look into the 5G radiation effects on these same zebrafish at a gene level and as they develop from embryos into adults.
Until then, it looks like 5G is good to keep going.