What will the citizens of the mountain community choose: health or technology?
The Touring Club Italiano, through the Orange Flag Towns Association, has signed a framework agreement with the company INWIT Spa for the launch of 5G in Italian villages and small towns that will join the offer. Bagno di Romagna, my municipality of residence, will therefore find itself in the coming months choosing whether or not to join this proposal. If affirmative, the municipality will be covered in a capillary manner by 5G mini-antennas to provide wireless services, namely 5G radiated into the air from very close sources. These antennas will be installed on street lamps, on building balconies and in manholes under pavements, exposing the population to strong electromagnetic pollution never experienced before which is added to already existing radiofrequencies.
The risks of 5G
On paper the offer would seem extraordinary: a mountain municipality, disadvantaged and isolated, accustomed to struggling with slow and unstable telecommunication services, would finally have solved its connectivity problems. This apparently far-sighted choice could in reality seriously endanger the health of citizens who already have to face electromagnetic and other pollution never occurred in 300,000 years of human history. In this regard SCHEER (Scientific Committee on Health, Environmental and Emerging Risks), the European Union’s technical-scientific commission, states that “5G leaves open the possibility of biological consequences”; the Alliance Against Cancer (founded by the Ministry of Health, the Istituto Superiore di Sanità is also part of it) is studying the causes of a malignant brain tumour (glioblastoma) focusing on the invisible pollution of mobile phones; the International Agency for Research on Cancer (WHO) has officialised the re-evaluation of the classification of carcinogenesis of non-ionising waves, radiofrequencies revised to Class 2A (probable carcinogens) if not even to Class 1 (certain carcinogens) whilst amongst the studies for new life insurance policies the well-known insurance company Swiss Re mentions 5G amongst emerging threats.
To date, there is no evidence or experimental data confirming that exposure to 5G radio frequencies is harmless to the health of humans, animals, or plants.
The context
Bagno di Romagna is a small municipality in the Romagna Apennines surrounded by very green and beautiful mountains. It is traditionally known for its thermal baths and because part of its territory is included in the Casentino Forests National Park. At the same time many people also come to Bagno di Romagna simply to enjoy a good traditional meal in one of the countless restaurants or farm stays. Eating well in Bagno di Romagna is the standard. The municipality is extremely rich in clean water that flows in the various streams that converge in the river Savio and in the three large lakes of Acquapartita, Pontini and Lungo. The green meadows of alfalfa stand out during the summer season amongst the fields cultivated with cereals; the woods become an extraordinary spectacle during the foliage season and many flock for the gathering of chestnuts which the woods are rich in. Many farmers have maintained the tradition of making a vegetable garden and raising some livestock for their own self-sufficiency, their homemade products are pure poetry. Recently Macrolibrarsi – a well-known company from Cesena that operates in the trade of organic and eco-sustainable products – chose precisely Bagno di Romagna to create an Autosufficienza Farm as a model and example of a sustainable community for the future.
The dilemma that isn’t there
The municipality today finds itself with an incredible heritage for the future. There are the thermal baths that attract people who want to treat themselves or simply do something positive for their body; the Casentino Forests that attract trekking enthusiasts and, in general, those who practise ecotourism; the beautiful lakes for those who want to spend a lovely day of relaxation in the open air and the restaurants and agriturismos that attract lovers of good food. Connecting the dots, it would seem almost obvious that a municipality with these characteristics should aim 100% at what will have more and more space in the future: WELL-BEING.
The old paradigm of HAVING IT ALL is beginning to wobble, and many people are no longer interested in what they own but rather in health.
Images of Bagno di Romagna
Stand out, don’t die out!
We know that to be well we must first of all eat correctly, with products grown organically and without pollutants, favouring plant-based and wholegrain dishes, in particular fresh and just-harvested foods. Industrial food is what most absolutely puts our intestine in crisis, and a sick intestine means predisposition to any type of disease. Bagno di Romagna should therefore invest more to create local, traditional and organic food supply chains. It should further distinguish itself for attention to health towards its citizens and visitors, aspiring to become the first Romagna municipality 100% organic and free from pesticides. Malles, a municipality in Trentino-Alto Adige, already did this in 2014, coming into the limelight of news for this unique and far-sighted choice.
The second step to being well is physical movement, even better if practised inside a wood: the Japanese call this activity Shinrin-Yoku and it is even prescribed by doctors in Japan and recently also in Scotland. Extending the park boundaries to the doors of the town is an idea proposed by the administration and rejected by citizens, but should absolutely be re-evaluated with a long-term perspective, perhaps considering reaching the doors of the town centre, instead of including it, so as not to frighten those who fear building constraints.
The third important element for one’s wellbeing is rest, and it’s precisely this that attracts many people to Bagno di Romagna. People who want to regenerate from city stress, from speed, from noise, from heat and from pollution. To rest well, nutrition and physical movement are indispensable factors, but not sufficient. It’s important to sleep in a welcoming, healthy environment without disturbances. Any source of pollution – acoustic, chemical and electromagnetic – can cause sleep disturbances.
That’s why it’s very important not to sleep with a mobile phone nearby or with another source of electromagnetic pollution. Switching off Wi-Fi before going to sleep is an excellent practice that costs us nothing.
5G is madness for Bagno di Romagna
In the context of my municipality, ultimately, 5G is madness. A mountain municipality will never become a technological excellence, no one will ever remember Bagno di Romagna as an example of a cutting-edge municipality for connection speed. On the contrary, it would be much more plausible and noteworthy for the municipality to be free from pollution, pesticides and electro-smog.
There are those who thought to provoke me by saying that “anyway if we don’t do it, everyone else will and so sooner or later we’ll be forced to adapt, we can’t be the only municipality without 5G”. Granted that I strongly doubt this could ever happen, my answer was simple and immediate:
If we truly were the only community without 5G, we would hit the jackpot. Fleets of people seeking a life free from electro-smog would move to Bagno di Romagna, thereby solving the depopulation problem.
Thousands of visitors would come for a regenerating holiday free from pollution of any kind. Being unique in something is what makes one well-known and the absence of 5G should rather be seen as a boast.
My dream for Bagno di Romagna
Bagno di Romagna is a beautiful municipality and can become a paradise if we choose to invest in beauty and not in pollution to chase sick growth. A few years ago my partner Giulia and I found ourselves on the road in Costa Rica. The following day we would take the plane to return to Italy and we were looking for a nice place not too far from the airport to spend the last night. At a certain point Giulia, leafing through the Lonely Planet guide, shouted: “I’ve found it: Amarillo! The quintessence of rural idyll! It has no banks and a single internet café. Take the cash you need with you”. Without hesitation we went towards that unknown town and a dream was born in me. One day, not too far away, I would like to read in the Lonely Planet: “Bagno di Romagna, the quintessence of rural idyll“.
Written by Francesco Angelo Rosso
