Calls for WiFi safety inquiry to be carried out in UK
By Conrad Quilty-Harper 
posted April 22nd 2007 3:35PM
posted April 22nd 2007 3:35PM
The UK paper The Independent on Sunday has been thinking of the children recently with a headline article today proclaiming that children are at risk from WiFi signals, or what it sensationally calls "electronic smog." Their motivation for putting WiFi into an almost satanic light are calls by the UK Health Protection Agency to hold an investigation into the safety of WiFi signals. That's fair enough: even if most of the mania surrounding the safety (or lack thereof) of wireless networks is unjustified, an inquiry should put the record straight, right? Still, when another of the bodies that is calling for the inquiry -- the Department of Education and Skills -- calls wireless area networks "magical," it gives the increasing panic over WiFi a rather depressing perspective. Why exactly children are being used to justify an inquiry is a question that needs to be answered too, since the number of homes and workplaces equipped with WiFi must surely outnumber primary and secondary schools. That's before you factor in the prevalence of cordless phones and an array of other wireless kit in the home, which operate on the same 2.4GHz frequency that the majority of routers do. Unfortunately, our expectation is that an inquiry will lead to the same kind of back and forth arguments about the safety of mobile phones and their masts, and not any kind of clarity over this almost manufactured controversy. It certainly doesn't help for WiFi to be branded a "radiation threat" before an inquiry has even been agreed upon.
Mike,
There's nothing really unusual about hearing the high-pitched whine of your CRT. It's the sound of the flyback transformer, and the tone you hear is the ~16Khz horizontal sweep frequency. That's inside the normal human hearing range, but a lot of people have some hearing loss in higher ranges due to noise. Also, not every TV makes this sound. I think it has something to do with the quality of the components or if the electronics do something weird with the signal to change the refresh rate. People also often hear the transformers in fluorescent lights.
You're not crazy, and it's not particularly unusual. Hearing these kinds of noises is worlds away from people claiming they can hear WiFi signals.
It is going to be just like the cellphones some years ago. People are going to make a fuss about it, but forget after a while.
I live in the UK, and these sort of posts sadden me. We really are perceived as a nation of health freaks who think anything wireless is going to give us cancer.
I have no comment on this story becasue it sounds like a buncha overprotective, busybody, nothing else to do parents are trying to cause another stir... remember the Harry Potter protests?
Anyhow... I think the idea of Wi-Fi is genius and even though I can't seem to get my Archos 604 wi-fi to work yet, I don't think it's doing any harm... Or at least not as much harm as they make it seems to be.
why is everyone so upset about this? i think it is great they do research.
they also once said that smoking was good for you and Everyone believed it.
just like you!
ps: i use wifi everyday.
I'm renting a room out in some guys house who I've learned to not like very much. We have wireless in our house that another roommate and myself use. I woke up this morning, went downstairs, and saw the article from the independent printed out and sitting on the table next to a note that says "This concerns me, we need to discuss this..."
The kicker is that this guy is a chemist. You would think he would know better. It's completely idiotic that people take this seriously when politicians, and not actual scientists, raise these concerns.