Sheffield councillors raise concern about 5G conspiracy theory emails

Theories that claim 5G causes cancer and is the reason for coronavirus symptoms are spreading across the internet, even though they have been dismissed by regulators and mainstream scientists.

Sheffield, like the rest of the country, has seen dozens of planning applications for 5G phone masts since the roll out started last summer, many of which are being approved.

But some have been trying to lobby local councillors to use their power to stop it.

Coun Ben Miskell, of Park and Arbourthorne ward, said: “The scale isn’t huge, but I often have people get in touch about that and things like chemtrails in the sky.

“The 5G conspiracy stuff is worrying, I’ve had five in the last month.

“Before this crisis, when people got in touch with me about conspiracy theories, I would engage with them, but now I choose not to.

“I don’t know whether that is the right strategy, because what I generally find is they want to have a long discussion and provide you with what they believe is evidence and it never really goes anywhere.

“Often they are people who might not live in your ward as well, they will often be emailing all councillors or all MPs, so we try to be polite, but we have a duty to people in our ward and not necessarily people at the other end of the city or country.

“I think councillors across the political spectrum are getting an increased number of emails about 5G conspiracy theories with supposed links to Covid-19.

“For a lot of people it’s a difficult time and they are looking for easy answers and scapegoats for awful things that are happening. That’s what is dangerous, because you can get vulnerable people sucked into these theories and it takes over their world.”

Coun Shaffaq Mohammed, Liberal Democrats group leader, said he received similar emails and was also made aware of theories claiming the tree-felling saga was to make space for 5G masts.

Thousands of trees were felled across the city as part of a £2.2 billion contract between Sheffield Council and Amey to improve highways.

Coun Douglas Johnson, Green Party group leader, said: “There are a handful of emails that come with these theories. Some are obvious conspiracy theories and others are earnest campaigners that believe this stuff who want us to do something against 5G or something.

“If it’s just a general email that doesn’t seem to be anything to do with the ward we usually just ignore them, it’s basically spam.

“If it’s someone in the ward then obviously we’ll respond t.”

Coun Miskell said: “People need to check the sources of their information and fact check things.

“There is a duty on all of us to do that and look at reputable sources and see whether this is actually something the NHS or government is saying. Is it something a number of scientists are saying in respected journals? It’s not.

"This kind of misinformation is dangerous, because it can lead people to make unsafe choices when it comes to Covid-19.”

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