From Richard Woodcock

Friday, 13 February 2015

There's going to be an interesting dramatic take on this issue in the Breaking Bad prequel Better Call Saul - just started on Netflix.

From Rory P

Friday, 13 February 2015

There are no proven health effects from exposure to Wifi. It's deemed safe both by our own government and the World Health Organisation.

There are an awful lot of smart physicists out there – many of whom will have children of their own. Until they start saying en masse that we should be living in faraday cages to block all radio signals, I'll take the ramblings of publicity seeking, self-proclaimed experts like Barrie Trower with a large pinch of salt.

From Andrew Back

Saturday, 14 February 2015

I'm not a doctor, but as a qualified radio systems engineer I can tell you that all this stuff about the health effects of WiFi and smart meters is nothing but utter twoddle.

The EIRP (effective isotropic radiated power) of WiFi devices and smart meter terminals is orders of magnitude lower than that of mobile phones. Yes, handsets and not the base station towers. So, if you're concerned about exposure to electromagnetic radiation, might I suggest that you keep a good 30 feet+ away from anyone carrying a mobile phone about their person. You'll probably also want to keep well clear of anyone doing arc welding, or old petrol cars, and anything else that generates sparks in a similar way, which are effectively broadband radio transmitters.

As for the videos and websites etc. cautioning us against the purported negative health effects. Well, I'm afraid these fall into one of two classes: a) people with fragile minds who have found the Internet a wonderful place to peddle their conspiracy bunk to others similarly afflicted; b) people who prey on the former by feeding them this rubbish and, oh, look at all those adverts on their website...

One to file alongside chemtrails and the like.

Meanwhile, there's actual real, non-fantasy, worrisome stuff to get bothered about, e.g. fracking, wealth gap, dismantling of the NHS etc.

From Simon Hayles

Tuesday, 17 February 2015

Barrie Trower was working with microwaves which can affect organic tissue dramatically (try putting an egg in a microwave oven!) but mobiles and wifi work on much lower frequencies and at much lower power.
Really, nothing to worry about.

As Andrew says, a far bigger health concern is the dismantling of the NHS.

From Jack Hughes

Wednesday, 18 February 2015

Well, so much for my nascent tinfoil hat business. Thanks a lot, debunkers.

From Liam Wood

Monday, 2 March 2015

Hi all, in the interests of keeping an open mind, you have mentioned here that the WHO has never found any dangers of using wifi.

The IRIC, part of the WHO does list RF/EMF as a carcinogen, and a recent study does site 2.4-3.0 Ghz ranges, i.e. wifi, as causing damage to the myelin sheath around the neurons.

The study can be read here.

So, maybe not put your foil hats away just yet! Liam Wood

From Andrew B

Tuesday, 3 March 2015

It would be hard to know where to start with critiquing that paper but I think it is fair to say that it makes several huge extrapolations from other studies, over-eggs the carcinogen angle (it is listed as possible carcinogen - no evidence to support this) and then runs wildly from that point on.

To draw the conclusion that wi fi is dangerous from this paper would be reckless, frankly. Not as reckless as believing that MMR vaccines cause autism but not off that level of misunderstanding the science.

Previously

HebWeb Forum: Proposed Communication Mast (May 2011)

HebWeb Forum: Wifi and health (May 2007)