Begin Wifi Cancer Scaremongering... NOW!

[Tenebrae]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6172257.stm

 

Good stuff, eh? In other news, there's a massive ball of radiation spewing death in the sky! The sky which is also falling.

 

Items like this really make me think that the media is really more of a problem than anything... doubtless, there will be people reading that and then going "so that's why... [health problem]" Hell, if wifi caused problems for adults, then a whole lot of university campuses would have dead people right about now. Children? Well, logically they'd be at higher risk, obviously but still. Scaremongering.

[TFMF]

I work next to a wireless router many hours a day - i haven't had any noticable symptoms. I just hope there never will be and that this is just another scare.

 

But currently' date=' the more common concerns for users lie in wi-fi's cost, patchy coverage and network security. [/quote']

[TetsuoShima]

I typically avoid being close to any wireless equipment for prolonger periods of time, especially at close range. I know they aren't supposed to cause any serious harm, not even over prolongued periods, yet somehow I still don't entirely trust it. (I'm a fervent preacher of 'better safe than sorry ' too. :) )

 

Besides that, I've yet to run into wireless equipment that's affordable and that performs even half as good as their wired counterparts (generally, I exclude cellphones, since I haven't had any major problem with those yet and I'm not very demanding of phones :D ), , if they have any wired counterparts that is (try finding a wired counterpart for GPS :D ), so meaning in the hifi/computer type of stuff...

 

Wireless routers for example are total cr*p, every single one of them, compared to what's available for wired parts.

[TFMF]

Wireless routers for example are total cr*p, every single one of them, compared to what's available for wired parts.

 

I've had very few problems with mine. Good signal strength and no disconnects. (The computer that uses it is in a different room to the router).

[Tablet]

im around wifi 24hours aday, if not at home then at uni.

 

I do get headaches, but thats stress  >:(

[Hilander72]

There's always going to be those that claims:

 

Since there's nothing wrong with me or anything that I do, that can cause these unexplained yet very common symptoms, that can be caused by a number of reasons, most of which I'm not even aware of and I do not want to bother any professional with my problems, since I've already made up my mind that the cause is external.

 

Conclusion: Blame something else... Something that wasn't there before... I can't be wrong, can I?

 

 

Like most people, Yes, I do get headaches and most of those are caused by lack of rest, food, sleep, stress, problems. Sometimes I don't know why I got a headache, why my nose is running or why I feel worn out, but I do not go into denial and blame everything on the first new thing I see... :)

[Ulysses]

yeah I would also say its scaremongering.......there is no proof what so ever about all this, I have been using a wireless network for ages and not noticed any ill effects...so if this is true then I am santa...lol

[Tenebrae]

To be honest, there is probably just someone who has a bunch of research ready to do on this and they're looking for a meal ticket, so they're probably kicking up a fuss to get a grant. To be honest, these days most of us probably live or work in range of SOME wifi - even if we don't know it...

 

Personally, I think once you get wireless working it's actually fairly reliable. Naturally, it's not quite as solid as the wired alternatives but it's a lot easier and all the cool kids have it.

[Vyperion]

Indeed.

 

I saw a wi-fi scaremongering piece in the Sun about how all these people living beneath this cell tower (mobile phone mast) had all these various cancers from cervical to liver. The connection was made that they were living very near to a phone mast.

 

Except there have medical studies that show at least one in three people will get a form of cancer in their lifetime so for three tower blocks housing 250-odd people each seven of them getting cancer is still beating the odds.

 

If you sat next to a TV all your life the collective EM exposure wouldn't match a single day's worth of cosmic EM radiation that the Earth's atmosphere doesn't protect us from. A TV puts out about 15 rems while we are exposed daily to 25000 rems from the sun alone.

 

And I base that on some physics paper I read about ten years ago that I have almost forgot about. :D

[[MM]]

As Peter Green, a senior lecturer at the University of Manchester says: "You wouldn't put your wi-fi right next to your bed,....

 

Actually I sleep within 3 feet of a high gain Wi-Fi antenna (just the other side of the wall) and have the actual unit at the head of my bed on the window ledge above it. (a point to point link with my mate 100M up the road)

 

I have no concerns about it what-so-ever !

 

I don't understand the medical side very well but I do understand the technical side - that of frequency and power.

 

*IF* he did actually understand the technical side he would know that by walking in an east or west direction you generate much more EM energy in your body as you (a conductor -a bag of water) move through the earths own magnetic field.

 

And don't even start me on electrical mains exposure (every house in the UK has a "ring main" meaning whenever you are indoors you are standing within a copper loop radiating 50Hz EM 24 hours a day).

 

This sort of stuff is pure Luddite mentality - a fear of "new things" , whatever they may be.

 

I'm *not* saying "all EM is safe , don't worry about it" , far from it , I just wish ppl & the press would try to learn about what they are talking about before they go scare mongering like this.

 

One good example would be the whole mobile phone thing - ppl worry more about the phone mast which is safely out the way (EM field strength drops off dramatically over even a short distance) and less about the transmitter they press against their skull for hours on end. (the phone itself)

 

Parents then complain about Cell masts being mounted near/on schools yet most of them will have bought mobile phones for their kids to use.

 

By moving a Cell mast further away from the school means the phone now has to crank it's power settings UP to be able to reach a further away mast. (i.e. It increases the exposure given to the kids when they use their phones)

 

A good example of scare mongering doing more harm than good , I feel.

 

/rant

 

[MM]

 

[Tenebrae]

Yeah, people are so f-ing ungrateful, really. Take all the things that science gives us as if they were borne from the Earth and then the second someone cries wolf, they're smashing their mobile phones and eating babies.

 

I think The Simpson's summed it up when the meteor was going to crash into the town but the pollution saved them and at the end they said "let's smash the observatory so this never happens again."

[ZaphodiLe]

Aaaw Come On. We're bombarded with radiation from space and the sun all the time, far more "dangerous". It's probably more dangerous to stay out 5 minutes in the sun than an entire lifetime besides a wifi-router.

And still parents say "go out and play in the sun". Just old superstition.

 

 

A little microwaves never killed anyone :P

No but seriously, these are really long microwaves, as about 12 centimeters, they won't hurt anyone. They're at the border to radiowaves, and your not freaking out about listening to the radio are you?