By Jon Doe

The names of those who sat on a government committee deciding on the safety of 5G technology can now be named.

In 2018 an 84-page report was published by the New Zealand Ministry of Health (MoH) on the safety of wireless technology. It concluded that current safety standards did not need to be revised for the introduction of 5G wireless systems for mobile phones etc.

Establishing who sat on this powerful committee should have been a 10-minute job. Unfortunately, the authors of the report are not named in the publication. The Ministry of Health also refused to name them due to “privacy reasons”. A private committee advising on matters of public interest?

In October 2019 a complaint was made to the Office of the Ombudsman asking for the list of committee members to be released.

On 24 August 2020 the list was reluctantly released by the MoH following pressure from the ombudsman– you can download it here and read the list of members below.

Interagency Committee on the Health Effects of Non-Ionising Fields Members 2017/2018

Interagency Committee on the Health Effects of Non-Ionising Fields Members 2020

Download the list here.

1. Peter Berry – Representative of the electrical industry (transmission and supply)
2. Veerendra Bhim – Representative of Energy Safety
3. Ben Blakemore – Representative of the telecommunications industry
4. Jon Duffy – Representative of Consumer New Zealand
5. Simon Cooke-Willis – Representative of the telecommunications industry
6. John Dockerty – Academic representative
7. Marie Gibson – Representative of DHB public health units
8. Sally Gilbert – Secretary, Representative of the Ministry of Health
9. Martin Gledhill – Representative of the Ministry of Health
10. Richard Jaine – Chair, Representative of the Ministry of Health
11. Ken Karipidis -Observer from the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency
12. Kimbal McHugo – Representative of the Ministry of Education
13. Paul Molloy – Representative of Workplace Health & SafetyAndrea t’Mannetje – Academic Representative
14. Dave McLean – Academic Representative
15. Rose Feary – Representative of the Ministry for the Environment
16. Leah Clark – Representative of the Ministry for the Environment
17. Isobel Stout – Representative of local government
18. Rick Tinker – Observer from the Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency
19. Adam Tommy – Representative of the telecommunications industry
20. Matthew Walker – Representative of the electrical industry (transmission and supply)
21. Theresa Van Rooyen – Representative of the Radio Spectrum Management Group

Released under the Official Information Act 1982.