Recently, my son came home from one of his first days of middle school and he had an interesting question for me. “Dad, is Wi-Fi bad for us? One of my classmates was saying the wireless waves we can’t see could be damaging us way more than we realize,” he said.

For a moment, I had to think about how to answer that question. The truth was, I had never thought about any health risks associated with Wi-Fi. I looked at my son and told him that I honestly hadn’t the slightest idea, but I thought it would be a great topic for both of us to research and share what we learned.

Wi-Fi is literally everywhere now. I remember when the Internet was first arriving in our homes in the mid 90s and there was no real wireless anything. But now… go to the coffee shop, the airport, the library, the supermarket, the hospital; almost anywhere you go, you are connected to the rest of the world through the amazing technology of Wi-Fi.

But with all these Wi-Fi signals invisibly bouncing around us all the time, are there anytime identified health risks that we should be talking about? Possibly, but most current research says no.

According to the National Cancer Institute (2017), the few high-quality studies (looking at the health impact of Wi-Fi) in animals have provided no evidence that Wi-Fi is harmful to health. Additionally, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (2017) reports that studies on adults show no evidence of a link between electromagnetic fields (EMFs) exposure and adult cancers, such as leukemia, brain cancer, and breast cancer.

Wi-Fi signals operate in the electromagnetic spectrum. This spectrum represents all of the possible frequencies of electromagnetic energy. It ranges from extremely long wavelengths (extremely low frequency exposure such as those from power lines) to extremely short wavelengths (x-rays and gamma rays) and includes both non-ionizing and ionizing radiation (National Cancer Institute, 2017).

The space that Wi-Fi operates in (within the electromagnetic spectrum) is high frequency (HF) and non-ionizing. No mechanism by which electromagnetic fields (EMFs) or radiofrequency radiation could cause cancer has been identified in this space. Unlike high-energy (ionizing) radiation, EMFs in the non-ionizing part of the electromagnetic spectrum cannot damage DNA or cells directly.

Also, Wi-Fi emits levels of radiofrequency radiation that is far below the guideline of 10 W/m2 as specified by the International Commission on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection (ICNIRP). The ICNIRP confirms considerable amount of research has been conducted on the relationship between high frequency, non-ionizing fields and outcomes such as headaches, concentration difficulty, sleep quality, cognitive function, cardiovascular effects, etc. To date, their research has not shown any such health effects. The overall evaluation of all their research leads to the conclusion that high frequency, non-ionizing exposure is unlikely to be associated with adverse health effects.

Wi-Fi technology has only been commercially around for the masses since the late 90s, so at most we have twenty years of data to analyze. While the coming years will certainly bring us better research and scientific data to support any suspected health risks associated with Wi-Fi, it’s important that we all consider this topic and educate our loved ones and ourselves.

Cheers.