Information Society Watch
A Southern Lens on the Information SocietyWi-fi health study gets go ahead
October 12, 2007, BBC News Service
The United Kingdom's Health Protection Agency (HPA) has announced plans to conduct research on low-level radiation emissions of wi-fi access points and wireless links on computers. The research, which will be published online and submitted to peer-reviewed journals, aims to determine how these emissions affect consumer health and establish a baseline of exposure for the average person to wi-fi networks. While no scientific evidence has found that wi-fi and wireless networks are harmful to health, educators in the UK have expressed concern that their pupils are being used as 'guinea pigs' to determine the safety of wi-fi. The government assures that there is no problem or reason to discontinue use of wi-fi networks, whose signals are very low and well within radiation guidelines. However, little research has been conducted about the effects of exposure to the average person.