Approval of 5G mast for Yorkshire Dales is welcome signal – Yorkshire Post Letters

THE unanimous decision by the Yorkshire Dales planning authority to improve mobile and digital connectivity is a welcome nugget of common sense among the growing emotional fervent of opposition to 5G (The Yorkshire Post, February 9 and 10).

Increasingly improbable claims have been made such as that 5G causes flocks of birds to fall from the sky – a natural phenomenon as old as history, much like whale groundings.

Every recent such incident that blamed 5G has been independently proven to have no connection with 5G signals or masts.

Then we have every illness known to man being ascribed to mobile phone masts in general and 5G in particular, from Alzheimer’s to Parkinson’s and almost every cancer.

This would be almost 
amusing were it not for the effect these allegations have had on people here, especially those at risk of or suffering from serious illness.

Having had cancer myself, I find the spreading of these unevidenced claims to be frankly disgraceful manipulation of people at a vulnerable time in their lives.

It reminds me of the claims that MMR vaccine caused autism which were eventually proven to be entirely false, but by then had caused great harm to many children who caught measles, mumps, or rubella.

Then we have quotes from scientific papers – very selectively lifted from reports which also drew conclusions that 5G is significantly less harmful to human bodies than 2 and 3G, themselves a low risk. The unhelpful truths were simply ignored to skew the picture to 
the campaigners chosen narrative.

Those of us living in the Dales are at greater risk from the radon gas emitting from the ground beneath our feet 24/7 than from anything 2, 3, 4 or 5G can emit.

The Dales are indeed a special place to live.

They are not a frozen picture postcard for the delight of the few.

They have evolved through 
the activities of people and they need people to live and work here to maintain this special landscape and thriving communities.

Nowadays, to keep businesses working and young people and families able to learn, live and work here, modern communications are essential through reliable fast broadband and effective mobile networks.

The Mobile Access North Yorkshire project offers us that infrastructure now and we want it here.

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