Some say that wifi is killing us, or at least making us stupid and giving us cancer: (2:30 mins in the program starts)

The Bad Science blog is skeptical, and so are many others. (and a literature review in PDF)

What I have always wondered about this debate is how the anti-WIFI folks seem to think a WIFI signal is somehow qualitatively different than all the electromagnetic radiation that exists from natural and human-made sources. A fair bit of various cosmic radiation gets through our atmosphere (and with increasingly large ozone holes and such we can expect more gamma rays and other nasties), and the earth makes all sorts of electromagnetic noise (hence the static on your radio dial). Just look at the FCC distribution/control of the electromagnetic radiation field and you will appreciate all the other human-made (and typically much more “penetrating” short-wave radiation) that is used for industrial and military uses (and its to the chagrin of engineers and consumers that the crappy 2.5 and 5 Ghz bands are used for commercial goods). Basically, I too join the call to arms to adopt a precautionary principle in respect to not just WIFI, but all electromagnetic radiation. The possibilities are indeed scary, just look at this description of what is going on without anyone mentioning it (via a comment on Tim Worstall’s blog)

Wifi uses frequencies of 2.5 GHz to 5 GHz, and power levels of transmissions are typically around 1 W.

However there is another technology also used in schools that emits electromagnetic radiation and is potentially more dangerous, because:

1. this other technology emits radiation in the range of 450-750 THz, i.e. 100,000 times the frequency of Wifi; which means that each electromagnetic particle (or “photon”) will carry 100,000 times more energy and is therefore 100,000 times as potentially damaging. Furthermore there are structures near thr human brain which nave been scientifically demonstrated to be especially sensitive to radiation of these frequencies.

2. this other technology uses more powerful transmitters that typically emit 60-100 W. Furthermore, these transmitters are typically kept on all the time (unlike wifi which transmits in bursts), which increases the total amount of energy radiated over a given time.

These facts suggest to me that this other technology is potentially a lot more harmful to health than wifi might be (although having said that it is entitrely possible that neither technology poses a significant harm to health), and that consequently if wifi is to be investigated as a risk to health, this other technology should be investigated much more rigourously.

The name of this other technology? light bulbs.

Indeed, lightbulbs are worrisome, since they DO emit so much electromagnetic radiation. Once we ban lightbulbs I am perfectly comfortable with banning WIFI, but lets do lightbulbs first.