Researcher Warns of Wi-Fi Related Birth Defects
Researcher Warns of Wi-Fi Related Birth Defects
Posted 08/25/2010 at 9:28am
| by Paul Lilly
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Don't fret if your newborn just popped out of the womb sporting horns and a tail, that just means your router is firing on all cylinders. Or, as a British scientist and former naval microwave specialist warns, it would serve as proof that Wi-Fi leads to birth defects.
"When I realized these same frequencies and powers (as weapons during the Cold War) were being used as Wi-Fi in schools, I decided to come out of retirement and travel around the world free of charge and explain exactly what the problem is going to be in the future," Barrie Trower told Postmedia News in an Interview.
"Children are not small adults, they are underdeveloped adults, so there are different symptoms. What you are doing in schools is transmitting at low levels."
Even though Wi-Fi is generally considered safe, Trower contends that no scientific studies exist that deem prolonged exposure won't cause any harm.
"If you damage the DNA, there could be a genetic disorder from the child that is born from that lady when they grow up," Trower warns.
While Trower might be freaking out over Wi-Fi, Health Canada says everything is gravy.
"Based on scientific evidence, Health Canada has determined that exposure to low-level radio-frequency energy, such as that from Wi-Fi systems, is not dangerous to the public," the agency said in a statement.
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JohnP
August 25, 2010 at 1:59pm
Well, it sells newspapers and magazines, that much is positive...
You know who really suffers? The poor folks who run around trying to avoid all these "harmful radiation hazards". I went to use my cell phone in a JiffyLube lobby and some old geezer runs out the door, screaming " NO, NO!". I asked him what was wrong and he said his doctor said that cell phones would stop his pacemaker and kill him! As an HP engineer working RF/Microwave gear, I told him that cell phones were always on and transmitting even when no one is talking sop no worries as he was still alive! The guy absolutely refused to listen.
How nice of this bozo to make life miserable for pregnant women by pointing afinger at something as innoculous and pervasive as Wi-FI?
lhatten
August 25, 2010 at 7:19pm
I recently retired from St. Jude Medical as a Software test engineer. The rreal irony in this is that as I was leaving, we were working on a wireless system to read and program the device, both pacemakers and ICD (implantable cardioverter-defibrillator). So every time he goes into get his pacemaker read, they will read it wirelessly. Don't you just love it.
Morichalion
August 25, 2010 at 1:35pm
Lots of folks seem kinda ticked off about this being posted, I thought I'd address that...
It's important to be informed about things like this.
When enough people get the wrong idea of how things are, we start finding bad laws on the books. For example, labeling cell phones like cigarettes.
Mr. Lilly likely isn't stating his own opinion in the article. In fact, he's stated that Health Canada thinks Wi-Fi is good stuff.
Someone mentioned Jenny McCarthy. The Anti-Vax movement is still getting bigger, despite the increase in previously-eradicated-in-the-US-diseases. The simple fact that there is no good set of studies linking autism to vaccines isn't going to stop that.
It's important to be able to know enough to respond to someone making fundamentally stupid statements. Part of that is knowing what the fundamentally stupid statements are. Such as "Radio Waves emitted from Wi-Fi devices and Cell Phones is a major cause of cancer!"
Is this article the type of news I was expecting to see on Maximumpc.com? No. Is it worth-while to know, as someone who's friends always ask about computers-related equipment? Yes.
When someone comes to me asking if their Wi-Fi router is going to cause them to have cancer (Or which one is safer than the others, maybe), I will be able to avoid the slack-jawed expression of astonishment that someone I know could possibly be under the impression that their wireless router is out to kill them.
SleepyCatChris
August 25, 2010 at 2:59pm
The title of the article gives the impression that this is some sort of authoritative and definitive finding. It should be more like "Researcher Makes Ridiculous and Unsubstantiated Claims about WiFi and Birth Defects".
ddimick
August 25, 2010 at 1:34pm
Pretty sure this article is just to generate posts calling out how stupid it is. It's working.
Morichalion
August 25, 2010 at 1:05pm
I bought a new mattress for my daughter a couple of weeks back. When I informed a friend at work of this, he because extremely concerned about whether or not it had metal springs in it.
His concern was about the likelyhood of folks developing cancer as a result of laying on metal-spring mattresses.
The idea was that, since the mattress springs were wound at 1/2 the wavelength of radio radiation (not sure if it actually is...) that it somehow amplifies the radiation the person laying on the bed received. Then again, this assumes that radio wave radiation is dangerous at the levels emitted by such products as wi-fi enabled routers and cell phones.
I told my friend I disagreed with his position, attempting to point out that radio waves fit into the "non-ionizing" category. Unless he could explain how a metal coil getting struck by a radio wave emits UV or gamma waves, I figured the discussion was over.
He announced (rather authoritatively) that there was all kinds of scientific evidence and studies that PROVED the dangers of radio wave radiation! I NEEDED TO DO MY RESEARCH! LOOK AT THE ASSOCIATED PRESS!
I fired up the browser on my phone, and within a couple of minutes of reading a wikipedia article, I felt I had enough info to have an opinion. I know, wikipedia isn't supposed to be a FINAL source, but I didn't have a great deal of time...
Anyway, my opinion was the same. However, I did fear for the eyes of bunnies. Apparently, if you take a radio-wave source at about 90 times the strength of your average cell phone, and aim it at a bunny's eye for a couple of hours, the eye gets REALLY hot (40ish degrees celcius) and they get cataracts. The results were not replicated using monkeys, probably because they have bigger eyes.
Note: I said 90x cell phone strength, and 2 hours.
Here's the wikipedia article I looked at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_radiation_and_health
This is the first no-info "fear-mongering" article I've ever read on Maximum PC. Not sayin' it's a bad thing, they're always fun. Plus, the other readers seem to have a rational view on the subject.
snapple00
August 25, 2010 at 12:16pm
I agree with the others. It was really stupid to post this article. I'm ashamed.
Trooper_One
August 25, 2010 at 12:12pm
A similar discussion is being talk about by parents wanting to ban WiFi as they suspect (without solid proof) that Wifi is making their kids sick.
http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2010/08/15/ontario-wifi.html
... if WiFi is such a dangerous device, they should keep their kids inside the house, cuz the radiation emitted from the sun is much much more dangerous! But then again, you can't litigate against mother nature but they sure can get $$$ from the government & school board (i.e. taxpayers).
wb6jao
August 25, 2010 at 11:37am
See this article:
http://www.skeptic.com/eskeptic/10-06-09/#feature
WiFi emissions are the same order of magnitude as cell phones.
HateRegistration
August 25, 2010 at 11:28am
There are similarly no scientific studies that prove that exposure to the color orange does not cause mutation into hideous lizard beasts and yet he doesn't travel the world espousing that we should ban that hue. The "scientist" quoted in this article is attempting to exploit a very obvious logical fallacy and as a result his entire argument is nothing more than a straw man he is attempting to use to gain notoriety. Given that wi-fi radiation is non-ionizing and much lower power than cell phones, the only logical reason he could have for choosing this as his subject to crusade against is the pervasive nature of wi-fi making it easy to take any malaise be it real or imagined and pin it on wi-fi. The author may as well blame witchcraft for any supposed injuries as that's about as likely a candidate to cause problems as wi-fi.
Kid Chaos
August 25, 2010 at 11:12am
Savy Maximum PC readers have predicted that craptastic articles that pacifiy the editor for article posted deadlines may still get you fired. "I'll never get that time spent reading and commenting on the article back. I feel stupider for having read such baseless dribble," says one reader.
SleepyCatChris
August 25, 2010 at 10:42am
Please don't spread the crap that people like this kook spout. You're giving a voice to those that really shouldn't have it.
Also, the title says "Researchers" plural, but it's only about one guy.
AndySocial
August 25, 2010 at 10:13am
WiFi and cellular radio frequencies are in the category of "non-ionizing" radiation. Not all radiation is radioactive, and the radio waves from wifi and cell phones have such low powers there's very little plausible reason to think there's anything at all harmful about them. In fact, the background level of non-ionizing radiation we get from living in a modern society is statistically identical to the level of non-ionizing radiation you'll receive standing right next to an 802.11n router.
The burden of proof is on the one making claims. To say that there are no long-term studies proving safety is not in any way to show that there is a single study or piece of real evidence which proves harm.
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