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A leading radiation researcher says parents need not fret about a British study that found radiation levels from wireless internet in classrooms to be three times higher than those from a mobile phone mast. David Black, senior lecturer at the Auckland Medical School, said emission levels from wireless computer network technology, or Wi-Fi, were negligible.
Mobile phone towers were low-power transmitters, emitting only a few watts, he said.
"The fact that something that you're a metre away from appears to be three times as high is really quite irrelevant."
Dr Black is the author of New Zealand's safety standards for radiation emissions, and is a consulting expert to the International Commission on Non-Ionising Radiation Protection, which determines the international guidelines to which countries set their standards.
The frequency of emissions from Wi-Fi was actually very superficial, he said.
"At those frequencies the absorption really doesn't go much past the skin." Auckland administrative finance manager Sheri-Ann Atuahiva said she had been involved in screenings around the country of a documentary by Dr George Carlo, chairman of the US-based Science and Public Policy Institute, explaining how radio waves from mobile telephones and other wireless devices interfered with how cells communicated.
For 2 1/2 years Mrs Atuahiva experienced a "drilling pain" in her left shoulder blade, which was the same side where she was using her cellphone.
A friend introduced the mother of three to a cellphone chip meant to modify the electromagnetic radiation it emitted. Within two days, the pain was gone. She was now an independent consultant for the chip-maker.
