The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned an ad by charity Electrosensitivity-UK, seen in July/August 2019, which featured a headline stating 'How safe is 5G?' above a picture of a family of three.
The ad included quotes from various professionals with comments opposing the roll-out of 5G network technology. It listed a range of health effects including reduced male fertility, depression, disturbed sleep, headaches, and cancer. A total of seven complainants said that the ad was misleading by implying that 5G network technology posed a risk to health.
Electrosensitivity-UK insisted that there had been no tests on the safety of 5G signals and that the question 'How safe is 5G?' was an unbiased, legitimate safety question that allowed readers to accept, reject or ignore it. However, the ASA upheld the complaints and concluded that consumers would take the ad to mean that there was strong scientific evidence showing the negative impact of 5G technology on human health. The ad cannot appear again in its current form, with the charity ordered to make sure that they had adequate substantiation for any claims in the future.
