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Protecting Students From WiFi Radiation

Opinion
Feb 23, 20061 min
Data Center

As bizarre as it might seem to anyone with even a shaky grasp of the physics and current health research involved, a Canadian university is foregoing the campus deployment of WiFi because …

… the university’s president, Fred Gilbert, won’t allow it until he’s satisfied that human exposure to the electric and magnetic fields generated by WiFi doesn’t pose a health risk to students. An article on ITBusiness.ca quotes Gilbert as saying that “his decision [was based on] on scientific literature that indicates the potential for ‘some fairly significant’ health consequences.” I’ve read a lot about research into the health consequences of EMF and nothing current even hints at ‘some fairly serious health consequences.‘ Most studies I’ve read about indicate either no causal link or inadequate data to support a call one way or the other even for cell phones which radiate about 10 times more energy! A possible ulterior motive was pointed out by more than one poster on a Slashdot article about this story: Lack of funds for a roll-out. Hummm.

mark_gibbs

Mark Gibbs is an author, journalist, and man of mystery. His writing for Network World is widely considered to be vastly underpaid. For more than 30 years, Gibbs has consulted, lectured, and authored numerous articles and books about networking, information technology, and the social and political issues surrounding them. His complete bio can be found at http://gibbs.com/mgbio

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