Danger on the airwaves:
Is the Wi-Fi revolution a health time bomb?
It's on every high street and in every coffee
shop and school. But experts have serious concerns about the effects of
electronic smog from wireless networks linking our laptops and mobiles,
reports Geoffrey Lean
Being 'wired-up' used to be shorthand for being at the cutting edge,
connected to all that is cool. No longer. Wireless is now the only thing
to be.
Go into a Starbucks, a hotel bar or an airport departure lounge and you
are bound to see people tapping away at their laptops, invisibly connected
to the internet. Visit friends, and you are likely to be shown their newly
installed system.
Lecture at a university and you'll find the students in your audience
tapping away, checking your assertions on the world wide web almost as
soon as you make them. And now the technology is spreading like a Wi-Fi
wildfire throughout Britain's primary and secondary schools.
The technological explosion is even bigger than the mobile phone explosion
that preceded it. And, as with mobiles, it is being followed by fears
about its effect on health - particularly the health of children. Recent
research, which suggests that the worst fears about mobiles are proving
to be justified, only heightens concern about the electronic soup in which
we are increasingly spending our lives.
Now, as we report today, Sir William Stewart, the man who has issued
the most authoritative British warnings about the hazards of mobiles,
is becoming worried about the spread of Wi-Fi. The chairman of the Health
Protection Agency - and a former chief scientific adviser to the Government
- is privately pressing for an official investigation of the risks it
may pose.
Read the rest of Geoffrey Lean's story from The
Independent
Our thanks to Ian, G3ZHI for alerting us to this item
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