EU watchdog calls for urgent action on Wi-Fi radiation

[Guest guest]

By Geoffrey Lean, Environment Editor

Published: 16 September 2007

http://environment. independent. co.uk/lifestyle/ article2966951. ece

 

Europe's top environmental watchdog is calling for immediate action to

reduce exposure to radiation from Wi-Fi, mobile phones and their masts. It

suggests that delay could lead to a health crisis similar to those caused

by asbestos, smoking and lead in petrol.

 

The warning, from the EU's European Environment Agency (EEA) follows an

international scientific review which concluded that safety limits set for

the radiation are " thousands of times too lenient " , and an official

British report last week which concluded that it could not rule out the

development of cancers from using mobile phones.

 

Professor Jacqueline McGlade, the EEA's executive director, said

yesterday: " Recent research and reviews on the long-term effects of

radiations from mobile telecommunications suggest that it would be prudent

for health authorities to recommend actions to reduce exposures,

especially to vulnerable groups, such as children. "

 

The EEA's initiative will increase pressure on governments and public

health bodies to take precautionary action over the electromagnetic

radiation from rapidly expanding new technologies. The German government

is already advising its citizens to use wired internet connections instead

of Wi-Fi and landlines instead of mobile phones.

 

The scientific review, produced by the international BioInitiative Working

Group of leading scientists and public health and policy experts, says the

" explosion of new sources has created unprecedented levels of artificial

electromagnetic fields that now cover all but remote areas of the

habitable space on Earth " , causing " long-term and cumulative exposure " to

" massively increased " radiation that " has no precedent in human history " .

 

It says " corrections are needed in the way we accept, test and deploy " the

technologies " in order to avert public health problems of a global

nature " .

 

 

Tonight's top picks. What will you watch tonight? Preview the hottest shows on

TV.