'Anti-5G' Jewelry Found To Be... Radioactive And Dangerous

from the you-can't-make-this-stuff-up dept

We've noted for years how much of the hysteria surrounding 5G health hazards aren't based on actual science. In fact, 5G in general is arguably less powerful that previous standards; especially millimeter wave 5G, which struggles with distance and wall penetration. Most 5G health freak outs you'll see online are often based on a twenty year old misinterpreted graph that doesn't actually say what folks claim it does. That's not to say it's impossible that cellular technology could be harming human health, just that the evidence we have so far absolutely does not point in that direction.

Of course facts and data aren't particularly popular in the post-truth era, leading to endless continued freak outs over 5G. Some of which have proven notably dangerous to wireless company technicians, who've been increasingly targeted by conspiracy theorists. They've also resulted in a sub-market of grifters, offering "solutions" to a problem that isn't real (see this faraday cage enclosed router, for example).

Some of these grifts have proven to be a bit more harmful to their target audience however. For example the Authority for Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection (ANVS) in the Netherlands just had to issue a warning that several brands of “quantum pendants” and other “negative ion” jewelry marketed as "anti-5G" were in fact radioactive and dangerous to human health:

"The consumer products tested contain radioactive materials and therefore continuously emit ionizing radiation, thereby exposing the wearer. Exposure to ionizing radiation can cause adverse health effects. Due to the potential health risk they pose, these consumer products containing radioactive materials are therefore prohibited by law. Ionizing radiation can damage tissue, and DNA and can cause, for example, red skin. Only low levels of radiation have been measured on these specific products. However, someone who wears a product of this kind for a prolonged period (a year, 24 hours a day) could expose themselves to a level of radiation that exceeds the stringent limit for skin exposure that applies in the Netherlands. To avoid any risk, the ANVS calls on owners of such items not to wear them from now on."

One "negative ion" band was tested and was found to be emitting 2 microsieverts (or 0.000002 sieverts) of radiation every hour, or the equivalent of five dental X-Rays in a single day.

You'd like to think that people who bought radioactive jewelry to ward off unproven health hazards only to find the jewelry itself was killing them would maybe learn something from the experience, but that's unfortunately not how any of this works. Group think reinforced gibberish belief systems take a lot of time and effort to unwind, if you hadn't noticed by the seeming parade of conspiracy theories that never die.

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Filed Under: 5g, 5g jewelry, conspiracy theories


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  • identicon
    Rocky, 22 Dec 2021 @ 12:42pm

    It's both comforting and scary that people continue to prove that Darwinism is a thing when it comes to the human race.

    If I didn't have scruples, I could have been a multi-millionaire by selling overpriced trash to the stupids.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      PaulT (profile), 22 Dec 2021 @ 1:09pm

      Re:

      "It's both comforting and scary that people continue to prove that Darwinism is a thing when it comes to the human race."

      It's not, though. Take anti-vaxxers for example... they don't take their genes out of the pool because they were vaccinated as kids, they just cause their own kids to suffer, and since scientific knowledge is not hereditary that don't necessarily take their own out.

      "If I didn't have scruples, I could have been a multi-millionaire by selling overpriced trash to the stupids."

      Here, I sadly agree. If it didn't have morals, I could have made so much money fleecing these people. Sadly, my worldview insists I try to educate instead.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 22 Dec 2021 @ 1:30pm

        The Stupids

        The conspiracy theorist believers are not necessarily stupid (as in "of low general intelligence"). Some studies see belief in conspiracy theories as a failure of adherence to principles of rationality. Others, on perception of patterns that do not necessarily exist (Pareidolia).

        And, of course: Just because it is a conspiracy theory does not make it incorrect. "No Such Agency" really is listening in on a lot of conversations. HSBC was indeed laundering money knowingly. "Plumbers" did indeed plant bugs on the Democratic Party...

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • icon
          PaulT (profile), 22 Dec 2021 @ 1:56pm

          Re: The Stupids

          Maybe not stupid, but they certainly are attracted to ideas that a few minutes of logical thought and actual research would easily dismiss.

          "Just because it is a conspiracy theory does not make it incorrect."

          There are actual conspiracies (e.g. MK Ultra), but they're backed by real evidence that can be falsified. If you're going to talk about vaccines tracking you via 5G (usually complained about through your tracking device) and turning you magnetic, however...

          link to this | view in chronology ]

        • icon
          Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 23 Dec 2021 @ 1:00am

          Re: The Stupids

          "And, of course: Just because it is a conspiracy theory does not make it incorrect."

          Fallacy. Not because conspiracies don't exist or shady agencies aren't trying to listen to everything you say - but because even the CIA these days have given up on actual secrecy beyond short-time operational security. We know for a fact Uncle Sam wants to hear your phonecalls because the likes of Bill Barr et al. have openly insisted they need to do just that for decades.

          Everything leaks eventually and it's generally considered a good try if a secret manages to keep longer than a mere three years.

          Every alleged conspiracy big enough to make for a good story - holocaust denial, the "5G causes covid" hysteria, the liberal cannibal cult, the protocols of the elders of zion, the NWO, Sandy Hook being faked, Flat Earth Theory and the idea the moon landings were faked - are all bullshit. They all end up assuming the existence of actual én másse mind control and occasionally time machines for the pattern to produce the result suggested.

          That the GOP tries to disenfranchise every likely democrat voter, increasingly relies on a base of bigots and racists, and is fine with actively harming their country if it means sticking it to the libs right before elections? That's just observable fact.

          There's always a simple and rational answer. Particularly so when you already know as fact the prime movers of an alleged conspiracy aren't godlike in power and scope.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        Anonymous Coward, 22 Dec 2021 @ 2:46pm

        Re: Re:

        It's not, though. Take anti-vaxxers for example... they don't take their genes out of the pool because they were vaccinated as kids, they just cause their own kids to suffer

        The ability to raise children who reproduce is an evolutionary trait that helps propagate the parents' genes. Many animals, including humans, instinctively look after their young for this reason. The effect of vaccine avoidance, however, is probably too weak to make it a significant evolutionary disadvantage, unless the parents also avoid hospital care for their infected children. (And of course, the pathogen would have to be deadly enough to children in the first place; SARS-CoV-2, for example, probably isn't.)

        link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        That Anonymous Coward (profile), 22 Dec 2021 @ 4:17pm

        Re: Re:

        appears in a cloud of brimstone

        But isn't it more moral to remove these people from society before they cause even more harm?

        goes back to working on the trolley problem trying to figure out how to get the trolley down both tracks

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    David, 22 Dec 2021 @ 12:44pm

    A bit optimistic.

    You'd like to think that people who bought radioactive jewelry to ward off unproven health hazards only to find the jewelry itself was killing them would maybe learn something from the experience, but that's unfortunately not how any of this works.

    So far so bad.

    Group think reinforced gibberish belief systems take a lot of time and effort to unwind, if you hadn't noticed by the seeming parade of conspiracy theories that never die.

    "Unwind"? We have someone who dies from radiation poisoning after 5G masts were put up everywhere, with not even protection jewelry being able to save them, and that should unwind their belief that 5G is harmful?

    That doesn't unwind the conspiracy theories however slowly. It winds them.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      PaulT (profile), 22 Dec 2021 @ 1:06pm

      Re: A bit optimistic.

      "We have someone who dies from radiation poisoning after 5G masts were put up everywhere"

      Do we though? If a coroner suggests or even suspects that radiation poisoning is the cause of death, that' something to be taken very seriously and will be investigated. If all you have is "96 year old died few weeks after 5G was installed", maybe not. Correlation vs causation is a fundamental idea.

      Unless you buy into very stupid conspiracy theories, 5G providers don't actually want to kill their customers, so if there's ever anything to these claims they will be checked out...

      "That doesn't unwind the conspiracy theories however slowly. It winds them."

      Sadly true, but what's the answer? They don't have logic to support them in the first place, we can't hold back on every tech idea because some luddite imagines a problem with it and no logical or factual argument will ever change their mind because logic and facts didn't get them to the idea in the first place.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        David, 22 Dec 2021 @ 3:57pm

        Re: Re: A bit optimistic.

        They don't have logic to support them in the first place, we can't hold back on every tech idea because some luddite imagines a problem with it and no logical or factual argument will ever change their mind because logic and facts didn't get them to the idea in the first place.

        I wouldn't say that logic didn't get them. I mean, they are usually independent thinkers, and they do come up with ideas having some coherence and fall in love with them. I mean, it's like the logic pervading scientific discoveries and mechanisms of Gyro Gearloose and the Duck family on expeditions. It makes inherent sense and has appeal.

        It has no base whatsoever in facts, but honest: who can corroborate most scientific facts himself? It's all hearsay and belief and trust for almost everyone. It may be turtles, I mean facts all the way down, but essentially you rely on the people sitting at all the layers to pass the message on when a fact doesn't check out.

        They have other people they trust than you have, and sometimes they trust their own mind and intuition rather than that of others.

        And if the people they trust tell them that 5G lost the safety evaluation by a lot, those facts are as good an alternative as any.

        History is not written by the winners, but by the survivors.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 23 Dec 2021 @ 1:08am

        Re: Re: A bit optimistic.

        "They don't have logic to support them in the first place, we can't hold back on every tech idea because some luddite imagines a problem with it and no logical or factual argument will ever change their mind because logic and facts didn't get them to the idea in the first place."

        It's shit like this which always puts me in that bad scenario in my mind where before you earn the right to vote or speak you need to prove you aren't a deranged moron subscribing to magical thinking or religious convictions...

        Terry Pratchett once suggested the more appropriate name for the human species would be Pan Narrans - Storytelling Ape - rather than Homo Sapiens Sapiens. I'm inclined to concur with this.

        What really gets to me isn't even that the human race is trying to become another strike for the Great filter Theory but the utter banality of the way we do so;
        Global warming, caused in large parts due to cattle farts.
        A pandemic, the worst casualties of which can be directly linked to people preferring to eat anti-parasite neurotoxin rather than rely on medical technology proven for centuries...

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • identicon
          David, 23 Dec 2021 @ 4:34am

          Re: Re: Re: A bit optimistic.

          A pandemic, the worst casualties of which can be directly linked to people preferring to eat anti-parasite neurotoxin rather than rely on medical technology proven for centuries...

          They didn't do it out of the blue. There have been scientific studies in vitro documenting Ivermectin to be effective against the virus. In dosage lethal to humans and no studies trying to show an effect on humans with tolerable dosage could be corroborated. But add a conspiracy theory about big pharma trying to bury results because there would be far less money in it for them and you get there with a non-zero starting point in facts and a non-zero amount of logic.

          I mean we are talking about people who believe that after two centuries of performing elections it's easy to switch results on a national scale. It isn't even if you are a voting machine manufacturer without a paper trail (the ones still in use aren't from Dominion, by the way). It takes a coordinated national effort, and that effort is currently underway and it needs constant spread of bullshit to come to fruition. Not the stuff that is easy to do clandestinely, it has to be in the open and people have to swallow it.

          Easier to swallow Ivermectin. There's been actual documented scientific evidence (rather than mere rumor) for it working. Even if it has fallen apart upon looking more closely. The election arsonists are not even having that much to work with and still make it go places on a national level.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

          • icon
            Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 27 Dec 2021 @ 1:20am

            Re: Re: Re: Re: A bit optimistic.

            "They didn't do it out of the blue."

            I'm more than halfway convinced the ivermectin idiocy is caused by a single troll somewhere cherry-picking studies to badly misquote and that just going viral because the nurgle cultist brigade are already prepped to accept any word salad they could use to justify their conclusion of "Vaccine baaad!".

            "In dosage lethal to humans and no studies trying to show an effect on humans with tolerable dosage could be corroborated."

            Like that old anecdote of how 4g of vitamin C daily would prevent you from ever having colds again. True enough, since that sort of OD will kill you.

            "I mean we are talking about people who believe that after two centuries of performing elections it's easy to switch results on a national scale."

            “It’s hard to quarrel with that ancient justification of the free press: “America’s right to know.” It seems almost cruel to ask, ingenuously, ”America’s right to know what, please? Science? Mathematics? Economics? Foreign languages?”
            None of those things, of course. In fact, one might well suppose that the popular feeling is that Americans are a lot better off without any of that tripe.
            There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there always has been. The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.””

            • Isaac Asimov, "A Cult of Ignorance", 1980.

            The problem lies with the american love for magical thinking. The US is just P.T. Barnum's promised land where so many americans grow up tethered to a faith any information they collate on their way through life just gets shoehorned as props to back the conclusion they want to see.

            As you say there's a lot of historical reason to not believe Big Anything in that place; The Railroad Barons, Ma Bell, Big Tobacco, Big Oil, Big Banking...corporations becoming Too Big To Fail. Americans are by and large reminded every day that no authority or influential entity has their best interests in mind.
            Ironically this is all by their own choice to boot, since stomping on the "Big Success Story" of companies by enforcing regulation and ethics has traditionally been viewed by these same people as anathema - as a blow against the american "freedom to succeed". Something none of them ever will but every last one of them defends.

            And the end result is that now they believe the Facebook rando over any actual authority on every topic.

            link to this | view in chronology ]

            • icon
              Toom1275 (profile), 27 Dec 2021 @ 11:13am

              Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: A bit optimistic.

              I'm more than halfway convinced the ivermectin idiocy is caused by a single troll somewhere cherry-picking studies to badly misquote and that just going viral because the nurgle cultist brigade are already prepped to accept any word salad they could use to justify their conclusion of "Vaccine baaad!".

              It's because of the same scam group behind Hydroxychloroquine, "America's Frontline Doctors," that pushed Ivermectin because they had profit deals with shady will-give-fake-Ivermectin-prescriptions-for-cash websites.

              Like Antivaxxism, Ivermectin's nothing but grift all the way down.

              link to this | view in chronology ]

              • icon
                Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 28 Dec 2021 @ 1:22am

                Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: A bit optimistic.

                "Like Antivaxxism, Ivermectin's nothing but grift all the way down."

                The True American Way - giving the witch doctor the moolah you'd need to feed your children because some facebook rando told you that was somehow better than relying on people with decades worth of knowing what they're doing...

                link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 22 Dec 2021 @ 1:12pm

    Some people are never satisfied. It is a scientific fact that people who die from cancer are immune to all effect of 5G radiation.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      David, 23 Dec 2021 @ 7:13am

      Re:

      It could affect them. I mean, we use gamma rays on onions to keep them longer in appetizing state. 5G could do the same for worm food.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Baron von Robber, 22 Dec 2021 @ 1:12pm

    I need to resell those.

    "MAGA supporters get theirs at a discount of 75% above retail!"

    But first I need a hazmat suit.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    noname (profile), 22 Dec 2021 @ 1:38pm

    Not that I support these things (not even really sure what they are supposed to do) but the amount of radiation that they are saying they have is very small and should have almost no effect on a healthy person.

    The average back ground radiation that a person is exposed to is .17-.39 microsieverts (1/1000000 of a Sievert) per hour. There is no effect on the body until around 50 millisieverts (1/1000 of a sievert) in a year.

    Basically these things are useless and according to every radiation safety standard I have ever seen they are harmless.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Rocky, 22 Dec 2021 @ 2:40pm

      Re:

      Basically these things are useless and according to every radiation safety standard I have ever seen they are harmless.

      Remember, this is a piece of "jewelry" which means it's the same small part of the body absorbing the dose and the cumulative effect may result in cancer or other problems. Just look at flight attendants and airplane pilots, all which have a higher incidence of cancer which correlates to their flight time. The jewelry mentioned exposed the wearer to 2 µSv/h which is equivalent of the dose you get from flying ~30 minutes at high altitude. If you wear this piece 24/7 you quickly rack up thousands of hours of exposure.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        noname (profile), 22 Dec 2021 @ 3:07pm

        Re: Re:

        Oh no doubt that people should be aware of it. It is not a good thing to increase your exposure to radiation at all especially not for cheap jewelry.

        An interesting thing that i found out though (after reading your comment) is that a suprising amount of jewelry is radioactive to some level. Doesnt change anything just found it ingesting.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • icon
          Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 23 Dec 2021 @ 1:19am

          Re: Re: Re:

          "An interesting thing that i found out though (after reading your comment) is that a suprising amount of jewelry is radioactive to some level. Doesnt change anything just found it ingesting."

          Radiation is everywhere. It's a question which type and which intensity, is all. The jewelry in the OP are all primary emitters of alpha, beta and gamma radiation at intensities which will induce ionization in the tissues closest to the jewelry in question. The net outcome of which is almost invariably cancer once enough holes have been punched in cellular DNA at random.

          I suggest anyone with an interest in good old snake oil stories to review the good old stories of the radium hysteria of the 1920's and 1930's just to see where this shit comes from. And a quick google of "Eben Byers Radithor" as to the likely outcome of the benighted morons buying this type of jewelry.

          link to this | view in chronology ]

    • identicon
      Anonymous Coward, 22 Dec 2021 @ 5:56pm

      Re:

      That level of radiation may be almost harmless as a whole body dose, but because it is from jewellery, it is localised and that is what makes it dangerous. .

      link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      JMT (profile), 22 Dec 2021 @ 8:18pm

      Re:

      It was a tough choice whether I should assume you're right or go with the advice of the Authority for Nuclear Safety and Radiation Protection, but I'm afraid you lost.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        noname (profile), 22 Dec 2021 @ 8:43pm

        Re: Re:

        That's fine but i didn't actually say anything that contridicted them. The only thing they actually said is that these products exceed the limits in the Netherlands. The article that this article is based on has huge issues with their dosage math. I am only familiar with American standards for radiation safety and that is what I spoke to. I am not saying they are ok, there is a phrase when dealing with radiation ALARA (as low as reasonably achievable) that these clearly violate.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    That One Guy (profile), 22 Dec 2021 @ 4:20pm

    Just can't make this up...

    People so worried about the so far mythical 'dangers of 5G' end up wearing radioactive jewelry to 'protect' themselves.

    Write that sort of thing in a story and the author would likely be ripped into for writing something so absurd, yet here we are are in reality...

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      That Anonymous Coward (profile), 22 Dec 2021 @ 8:44pm

      Re: Just can't make this up...

      No mayor would keep the beaches open just because it was a holiday weekend after a shark ate like 10 people.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • identicon
        David, 23 Dec 2021 @ 7:17am

        Re: Re: Just can't make this up...

        We need a bigger suspension of disbelief. The GOP is on it.

        link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 22 Dec 2021 @ 4:58pm

    That's ridiculous. Only a weekly cleanse and thorium-aloe enema will protect you from the 5G mind control rays.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      BernardoVerda (profile), 25 Dec 2021 @ 2:36pm

      Re:

      Screw that. I could have tons of fun with an actual, functioning mind control ray, compatible with cell-phone technology -- but nobody is even offering to sell me one.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Toom1275 (profile), 22 Dec 2021 @ 5:03pm

    Something manages to be dumber than the Chinese-usb-stick-with-foil-sticker these rubes bought for $300 a piece.

    link to this | view in chronology ]

    • icon
      Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 23 Dec 2021 @ 1:29am

      Re:

      Well, yeah. Between spending 300 bucks for a foil-wrapped USB or a pendant which gives you tumors the chinese offer is certainly "superior" in that it isn't actively harmful.

      link to this | view in chronology ]

      • icon
        That Anonymous Coward (profile), 23 Dec 2021 @ 6:29am

        Re: Re:

        yet

        link to this | view in chronology ]

        • icon
          Scary Devil Monastery (profile), 27 Dec 2021 @ 1:32am

          Re: Re: Re:

          "yet"

          Chinese peddlers will be happy to sell you overpriced schmutter in the form of foil-wrapped USB's or cheap plastics with old daoist spells formpressed into faux tortoise shell or jade plates. Guaranteed to bring great joss your way.

          But their market regulations are a long sight stronger than those of the US, so why would they risk the local customs magistrate casting the evil eye towards them?

          link to this | view in chronology ]

  • identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 23 Dec 2021 @ 9:58am

    Important question left unaddressed

    Does this jewelry emit enough radiation to meaningfully interfere with proper connectivity of a 5G device? If not, then it fails at its basic purpose of being "anti-5G." ;)

    link to this | view in chronology ]

  • icon
    Toom1275 (profile), 24 Dec 2021 @ 11:27am

    Lest you think that take-mutagenic-radiation-to-avoid-harmless-5G is a unique kind of stupidity, remember that there are those who would rather get a virus, take experimental pills, or buy into the hudroxychloroquine/ivermectin scam just to avoid a safe and effective vaccine.

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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