Re: No escape from radio frequencies, PNR, Feb. 1.
Unfortunately your discussion of radio frequencies is incomplete.
While it is true that a single photon does not have the energy to knock ions off a molecule (a single photon on its own can do little and neither can a single grain of sand even if blown at one with the velocity of a sand blaster), I doubt that you would state being hit full blast by a sand blaster is harmless.
In terms of the statement that we have always had some non-ionizing radiation in our environment, yes you are correct, but once again you miss a critical point. The natural background count is in the order of 0.00000000000001 uW/cm2. A WiFi router, according to Industry Canada, is 8.7uW/cm2 and according to Health Canada it is safe to expose a person to 1000 uW/cm2 for six minutes (this standard is very effective if one does not wish to be cooked in a microwave oven within six minutes). India has recently reduced their allowable limits by a factor of 10 to 0.98 uW/cm2 after they found people had health problems.
The WHO sub-committee the IARC voted virtually unanimously to classify radio frequency as a group 2b carcinogen (the U.S. rep walked out and a rep from Germany voted against the remaining 28 country representatives, including the Canadians, at the conference).
You criticize the Lancet for noting the possibility of the radiation causing glioma yet omit they reported it is also associated with causing acoustic neuromas.
The recently updated bioiniative report issued additional concerns and is calling for limits over 300,000 times more stringent than Canada. Between the IARC and the Bioiniative report, almost 60 of the world top scientists in the field are saying they are concerned and there is a strong possibility that the radiation at current level will cause cancer and other health ailments.
You don’t get many pro-WiFi e-mails because the facts don’t support WiFi except when one considers the lazy, easy way of implementing WiFi. The long term costs, however, are seldom a significant cost savings.
Norm Ryder
Central Saanich
