How Bad Can Wi-fi Be?

An anonymous reader writes "Sunday night in the UK, the BBC broadcast an alarmist Panorama news programme that suggested wireless networking might be damaging our health. Their evidence? Well, they admitted there wasn't any, but they made liberal use of the word 'radiation', along with scary graphics of pulsating wifi base stations. They rounded-up a handful of worried scientists, but ignored the majority of those who believe wifi is perfectly harmless. Some quotes from the BBC News website companion piece: 'The radiation Wi-Fi emits is similar to that from mobile phone masts ... children's skulls are thinner and still forming and tests have shown they absorb more radiation than adults'. What's the science here? Can skulls really 'absorb' EM radiation? The wifi signal is in the same part of the EM spectrum as cellphones but it's not 'similar' to mobile phone masts, is it? Isn't a phone mast several hundred/thousand times stronger? Wasn't safety considered when they drew up the 802.11 specs?"

Comments

Eek!

[mibalzonya]

I suggest aluminum foil hats.

Re:Eek!

[Shinmizu]

That's what the man wants you to think.

Trade one for the other

[Applekid]

So if WiFi can give you cancer, what can a bunch of loose network cables strewn on the floor give you?

It's not the flight I'm afraid of, it's the notebook's landing that's the dealbreaker.

Re:Won't somebody please...

[mario_grgic]

give her cat cancer

Is that when there's a cat growing out of her chest cancer?

To quote Lionel Hutz

[DaveCar]

From TFS: Their evidence? Well, they admitted there wasn't any

Well, Your Honor, we've plenty of hearsay and conjecture. Those are kinds of evidence.

Re:What crap.

[cerberusss]

their children are outside getting burnt without sunscreen.

You think that's bad? The other day, I saw a kid browsing Slashdot in the library.

*shivers*

OMG SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHIIILDREN

Re:Sounds familiar

[asliarun]

Consequently, all packets transmitted through WiFi will now need to have the text, "WiFi Kills".

Re:WiFi is microwaves

[Clandestine_Blaze]

I stand corrected. I found out that my knowledge of the topic was totally wrong You must be new here. ;)

Kill bit

[PIPBoy3000]

They got it all wrong. The problem isn't with WiFi, the problem is when the signal carries the kill bit, passing through your body and causing extreme cellular damage. That's why most of the time the studies show up nothing.

Re:What crap.

[tpholland]

All day we're around Microwaves, XRays, High voltage lines, lights, televisions and Radio signals.

Please stop, it's too horrible! The worst of it all is that my PC is as we speak radiating heat.

That's the same kind of radiation that is used in conventional ovens!

It can cook stuff to death!

Re:What's the Science in This?

[Tofystedeth]

It's that sort of programming, and if they convince laypeople that more money needs to be spent on researching this than is really necessary it only does damage. No amount of funding is too much for the issue of finding black holes. I still have 17 socks and a car key unaccounted for.

Re:Won't somebody please...

[Azathfeld]

Friggin' fake news. I'm going to go strap a thousand wireless routers to their offices so that they all die of fake cancer.