Government to study Wi-Fi exposure

 

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By Matthew Sparkes

Posted on 15 Oct 2007 at 10:19

The Health Protection Agency is to conduct research into the effects of exposure to Wi-Fi networks. The agency says that there is no reason to believe that the signals have a detrimental effect on health, but that existing research doesn't yet fully cover the topic.

"There is no scientific evidence to date that Wi-Fi and WLANs adversely affect the health of the general population," says Professor Pat Troop, Chief Executive of the Health Protection Agency. "Given this, there is no particular reason why schools and others should not continue to use Wi-Fi or other wireless networks."

"However there has not been extensive research into what people's exposures actually are to this new technology and that is why we are initiating this new programme of research and analyses. We have good scientific reasons to expect the results to be reassuring and we will publish our findings."

Once complete, the research findings will be compared to existing guidelines on maximum exposure, although the agency says that levels of exposure would so far appear to be below the limits set by the International Commission on Non-Ionising Radiation. The results will be published on the HPA website and also submitted to peer-reviewed scientific journals.