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Radiation levels from wireless internet in schools are being investigated after a British study found emissions in a classroom there three times higher than those from a mobile phone mast.
Wireless computer network technology, or Wi-Fi, is widely used in schools. Some private ones require all students to have laptop computers and use wireless internet access during lessons.
But only limited local studies have been done on radiation levels from classroom Wi-Fi.
Britain's Health Protection Agency has called for an urgent review of health risks from wireless internet networks in schools.
It followed the discovery by BBC researchers that the maximum signal strength one metre from a Wi-Fi laptop in a classroom was three times that measured 100m from a mobile phone mast nearby.
The agency's chairman, Sir William Stewart, previously recommended that mobile phone masts not be sited near schools without consultation with parents and head teachers because children were more vulnerable than adults to radio frequency radiation emissions.
In New Zealand, the National Radiation Laboratory will investigate radiation levels in classrooms in Christchurch schools.
Senior science adviser Martin Gledhill said he saw no need to extend his study to private homes, despite the growing number of domestic wireless internet connections, as he would not expect to gain any information different from what would be available from schools.
Mr Gledhill said radiation levels would be measured at access points and where students sat.
Radiation had been linked to heat stress and discomfort, similar to "an extremely mild form of what you get in a microwave oven".
A suggested link between long-term exposure to radiation and cancer had not been proven.
Auckland Primary Principals Association Ken Pemberton said schools were under pressure to have modern equipment to equip children for the modern world.
He welcomed the study to examine the area. "I don't believe for a moment that any principal would knowingly put any equipment into their school that was going to be harmful to their students," said Mr Pemberton, who is head of Murrays Bay School in North Shore City.
"As new information comes to hand, we need to deal with it."
Murrays Bay School had a wireless network mainly used by teachers. About 10 laptops used by students were able to access the wireless network.
Secondary Principals Association president Peter Gall, of Papatoetoe High School, said a major worry with Wi-Fi was security and ensuring sensitive details stored on the network were not hacked by outsiders.
The National Radiation Laboratory study follows a smaller investigation it did 18 months ago that tested emissions from Wi-Fi in one Auckland school, several homes and a workplace.
Mr Gledhill said the earlier study showed extremely low exposures of radiation from Wi-Fi.
"Typically you are looking at about a thousandth of one per cent of the limit recommended for the public."
A mobile phone mast measured around 1 per cent of the limit, said Mr Gledhill. He said the findings from the United Kingdom showing a Wi-Fi level three times more than a mobile phone mast seemed unusually high.
Auckland-based internet service provider Woosh, which sells wire-less broadband access, declined to comment.
