NZ OUTDOORS PARTY PRESS RELEASE:

25/01/2020

5G NEWS: REQUEST FOR REGULATIONS REVIEW OF “NESTF” REGULATIONS WHICH EXEMPT CELLTOWERS AND OTHER RFEMR EMISSIONS FROM RMA

The Outdoors Party has formally requested a review of regulations (attached) that allow new celltowers to be installed around New Zealand without any consultation with affected communities. The request has been made to coincide with the Global Day of 5G Protest on 25 January 2020: “Say No to 5G”.

Co-leader of the Outdoors Party and emerging issue lawyer Sue Grey says “communities around New Zealand and around the world are extremely concerned about the way new 5G microwave technology is being forced on communities without any consultation. There are numerous health and security concerns about 5G and important questions about whether we need it at all, especially in New Zealand where our government has spent considerable public money on ultrafast broadband”.

Sue is part way through a tour of New Zealand from Kaitaia to Alexandra, New Plymouth to Gisborne raising awareness about 5G, concerns about its effects on community and environmental wellbeing, and the loss of democracy.

“People are very concerned about new celltowers being placed immediately outside homes, schools, hospitals and workplaces, usually without any consultation” says Sue Grey. “People feel threatened and disempowered having celltowers placed outside their homes and children’s bedrooms, often without any consultation. In addition to the obvious health concerns, many communities are very unhappy about the secretive way the Telcos and government have gone about 5G rollout. Councils and local communities have been excluded form the process by regulations which nationalise decision making. People come home from work one day shocked to find a new celltower meters from their bedrooms, with no prior discussion. It’s a serious threat to public rights and democracy.

Sue first became involved in challenging inappropriately placed celltowers in 2008 as part of the Atawhai Playcentre community that lodged a petition with Parliament’s Local Government and Environment Committee. That resulted in a unanimous recommendation that the New Zealand Standard and the quality and independence of advice given to the Minister of Health should be reviewed. However the then Minister for the Environment Nick Smith rejected the Parliamentary Committee’s report.

Since then the problem has escalated with a rash of new celltowers around NZ as Telcos prepare for the rollout of 5G (fifth generation) microwave technology. 5G is a new and untested. Its being developed as it is rolled out internationally, without any safety testing” says Sue Grey. There are already many red flags, including reports from around NZ of serious health effects being suffered by many who have the new towers outside their homes.

The applicable NZ Standard (NZS2772:1 1999) was written in 1999. It was designed to protect only again the heating effect of RFEMR. There is no protection against damage to DNA, protein and enzyme function, mental health effects or other “biological effects”.

Sue Grey says “5G and the way new celltowers are being rolled out throughout New Zealand without consultation has become a human rights issue, in addition to a health and safety issue. RFEMR was classified as a Class2B carcinogen by the WHO in May 2011.

During a recent speaking tour in New Zealand, world expert and member of the 2011 WHO advisory panel Professor Dariusz Leszczynski said steps are underway for a review of the WHO classification, and he expects it will be reclassified at least as a Class 2A carcinogen. Many world experts are already recommending RFEMR be reclassified as a Class 1 (known carcinogen)

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