As the new 5G technology begins its deployment in France, with the gradual installation of its antennas, the National Frequency Agency, which regularly inspects our exposure to waves, has its work cut out for it.
Faced with the anti-5G protest from part of public opinion but also from certain elected officials, the State asked the ANFR to increase its tests in 2021: of the 10,000 planned this year, half should target new 5G mobile networks.
We were able to attend a control in front of one of these antennas where 5G was installed in Boulogne-Billancourt (Hauts-de-Seine) to verify that the level of exposure does not exceed the European health regulatory limit values, set between 38 and 61 volts per meter maximum.
Using several instruments, including a broad spectrum probe and two large yellow balls, technicians connect to the 3.5 Gigahertz frequency, dedicated to 5G.
And as for the moment 5G traffic is still little used, the control screen shows almost no movement.
So to stimulate the antenna, the engineer of the ANFR, will activate the network by downloading a file of several MB from her 5G compatible phone.
Almost instantaneously, the ANFR monitor screen produces a ripple.
The result: when someone uses their smartphone's 5G, there is an exposure field between 0.8 and 1 V / m.
“We are far from the maximum value of 61 volts per meter, notes Emmanuelle Conil, engineer at ANFR.
Moreover, the result is almost equivalent to exposure to waves of other technologies such as 3G or 4G ”.
Another measure of the impact of waves is also scrutinized by the ANFR.
That received by our cell phones in contact with our body.
On the head, on the chest or in our hands, our smartphones, which receive these new 5G waves via integrated antennas, will also be intensively analyzed.
A French company based in Orsay, ART-Fi, has also developed a unique machine that can quickly calculate the full impact of these electromagnetic fields on human tissue.
This time, the unit of measurement, called SAR (Specific Absorption Rate) is calculated in Watts per kg.
Its maximum threshold was set at 2 W / kg for the head and torso, and 4 W / kg for the limbs.
The ANFR, which has acquired this new scanner for its fields of research, intends to intensify its control missions in 2021. In 2020, 90 phones taken from points of sale in France had been analyzed to ensure their compliance.
Two of them had exceeded DAS standards.
