Is Wi-Fi a Health Threat in Schools? Sorting Fact from Fiction

Digital learning and wireless connectivity have become so entrenched in schools that many educators now consider high-speed Internet access a requirement for effective teaching. Advocates aspire to equip every student in America with wireless access. But schools are finding that a substantial number of people have health concerns about the radio frequency (RF) signals emitted by Wi-Fi devices, even as exposure levels are far below government safety limits. Objectors have banded together to protest what they consider to be the health hazards of wireless technologies, including Wi-Fi in schools. Spurred in part by public concerns, nearly 4,000 studies on radio frequency exposure have been done in the past 50 years. This article discusses research on health effects of radio frequency exposure, and argues that anti-Wi-Fi campaigners, for their part, seem inclined to cherry-pick the literature and compile lists of studies that support their views, regardless of methodological quality. The author states that schools need to adopt appropriate policies for safe use of cell phones and the Internet by children--not because of unproven radiation hazards but to avoid the harms that these otherwise highly useful technologies can pose.