WiFi Radiation - Is WiFi Technology Bad For Your Health?

The technological benefits of Wireless Fidelity technology versus the wireless hazards is a hot debate in many different countries. In the United States, a class action lawsuit has been brought against a school board who use the technology in their classrooms. In Britain, it has been removed from some classrooms altogether. Are these precautionary measures necessary, or simply the reaction of a public frightened by a technology they do not fully understand?

What is WiFi?
It is possible to form a somewhat informed opinion on the safety or potential risks of this new technology without actually being a physicist yourself.

Quite simply, Wi-Fi or WiFi is the wireless technology most commonly used to connect people to the internet in schools, coffee shops, hotels and other network locations, or to connect cell phone users to one another. Wi-Fi is certainly convenient for travellers and students, but is it dangerous? Many believe that the low-level electromagentic waves that radiate from the wireless internet source to each individual user can be harmful to your health, even causing cellular changes and possibly cancer.

The area covered by a Wi-Fi internet connection is known as a "hotspot"; this is the area in which the waves radiate to give users access to the internet. It can span several kilometers, although the waves cannot pass through treed areas. While in the hotspot, a laptop user can simply connect to the network, access the internet, and check their email or do their other business on the run.

A wireless network uses radio waves to send communications across a two-way network. A computer's wireless adapter translates the internet connection data into a radio wave and sends it to the wireless router - the one in your laptop. This process works in reverse as well, sending a radio signal back to the host computer.