Ontario School Bans Wi-Fi

St. Vincent Euphrasia elementary school in Meaford, Ont. is the latest Canadian school to decide to save its students from the harmful effects of Wi-Fi by banning it. Schools from universities on down have a history of banning Wi-Fi in Ontario. As usual, health officials and know-it-all scientists have called the move ridiculous. Health Canada has released a statement saying, "Wi-Fi is the second most prevalent form of wireless technology next to cell phones. It is widely used across Canada in schools, offices, coffee shops, personal dwellings, as well as countless other locations. Health Canada continues to reassure Canadians that the radiofrequency energy emitted from Wi-Fi equipment is extremely low and is not associated with any health problems."

Comments

Re:It's not the energy

[Trelane]

E = h \nu "It's not that the signal is low energy, it's that the radiation is not at a frequency that can do any damage" Given that you say "boost the power to the point where it boiled the water in your cells" I think you're confusing power, i.e. energy per second (and power density at that, i.e. energy per square meter per second) You get it right, though with "if one photon can't do any damage, neither can a thousand photons." You can heat with it, though, by exciting motion in e.g. polar molecules (and these are dependent upon frequency as well, since molecules "like to" move (i.e. are resonant) in different ways (different modes) and at different frequencies, hence the FCC power recommendations for ham radio even for wavelengths that are large compared to parts of your body). So you can make up for a lack of efficacy (i.e. by being off-resonance) by throwing more power at it (unless, of course, the molecule is completely non-reacting).