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Wifi risk doesn't quite square
The papers this weekend have been full of stories about calls for an investigation into whether Wifi can damage health, particularly of children. The scare, along the lines of 'mobile phones fry your brains', was started by the lead story in the Independent on Sunday the weekend before last.
This lengthy piece failed to mention the inverse square law, which states that radiated energy drops off with the square of the distance from the source, meaning that a transmitter held against your head is potentially far more dangerous than one a few feet away. Nor did it mention that we have managed to survive despite bathing constantly in a sea of natural radiation.
The story did give the increasingly tabloidy Indy a chance to produce another of its lurid Mail-style scare-of-the-day headlines. The paper had a point, but the views of experts on the subject have been generally more measured. There is no evidence, apart from a few questionable anecdotes, that Wifi poses a significant danger. There is, however, good reason to check out the health risks just in case.
Posted by Clive Akass on April 30, 2007 | Permalink
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