This is an archived article and the information in the article may be outdated. Please look at the time stamp on the story to see when it was last updated.

SAN DIEGO – Dozens of protestors came together in Balboa Park Monday evening to voice concerns over hundreds of 5G cell phone towers scheduled to go up in San Diego.

“I’m very concerned,” said Dr. Deborah Sie. “We’re going to talk about the effects of electro-magnetic poisoning and what people should be worried about.”

Others came to the meeting with open minds, ready to listen and learn about radio frequencies.

“We can’t see them, but it doesn’t mean they’re not there,” Donna Shanske said.

Current 4G LTE towers pumping out big signals are much farther apart in distance. The push to adapt thousands of smaller 5G towers nationwide at a much smaller signal is now underway and promise to offer speeds up to 20s quicker. The technology could go a long way in helping with medical devices and with pushing the autonomous car industry to the next level.

The San Diego City Council is on board, but with a vote of 7-to-1 agreed on restrictions to make towers smaller and aesthetically pleasing while mounting them on telephone poles and street lights. Hundreds of them are expected to be rolled out in San Diego by next year.

Dr. Sie says the cell phone networks and decision makers need to pump the brakes, claiming there’s no research on 5G and the impacts on our health.

FOX 5 reached out to Mayor Kevin Faulconer’s office and to the city council Monday night, but didn’t immediately hear back.

During a phone call Monday, former Rep. Darrell Issa said the 5G towers will be “much faster, much more data and lower power at any one source … the closer each one is, the less power is needed.”

“We would love to see safer,” said Dr. Justin Hoffman. “To see any studies on 5G would be appreciated.”

32.734148 -117.144553