home Audience 4 WiFi - is it so harmful or is it all just stories? Harm of WiFi to health - detailed analysis

WiFi - is it so harmful or is it all just stories? Harm of WiFi to health - detailed analysis

Radiation from a router that provides Wi-Fi into an apartment can be found in almost any home. Even if you do not have such a device, the rays can reach from neighboring apartments.

The question arises: What if this type of radiation has a detrimental effect on human health? Is a standard Wi-Fi router in an apartment harmful?

Since the invention of routers, many studies have been conducted on their effects on the human body. And after receiving their results, some experts spoke out about how serious the harm of Wi-Fi is.

Western scientific research

In the USA and Great Britain, experiments began almost from the moment routers appeared. They studied the effect of waves on children and adults.

It is noted that it is too early to draw definitive conclusions. Too little time has passed since the invention of Wi-Fi. But now pediatricians, radiation specialists, and oncologists are sharing their findings about mobile and Internet networks. And many are inclined to believe that they are not capable of causing serious harm.

The British Ministry of Health conducted about a dozen studies of various gadgets. Among them was the study of routers. Based on its results, the myth that Wi-Fi radiation has a serious effect on the body was dispelled. According to British scientists, the harm from the new Wi-Fi radiation is greatly overestimated.

Russian studies

There have been no high-profile studies conducted on the territory of the Russian Federation. Therefore, our experts refer to Western research when formulating their own conclusions.

The opinions of Russian and Western scientists about routers coincide. The harm from a wireless router is considered invisible or absent; the incidence of diseases does not increase with constant exposure.

Most Russian experts advocated a calm attitude towards Wi-Fi radiation. In their opinion, it should be minimized by turning off the device at night, but not trying to completely eliminate the possible harm of Wi-Fi. If there is one (and there are no accurate data on long-term exposure to radiation), then it is minimal. For now, network harm is just a myth.

Comparison of radiation from the router and other devices

The router is scary and questioned because it appeared relatively recently. It has been on the Russian market for less than ten years. Meanwhile, other household and technical appliances that have been used at home for a long time pose more harm.

In order to find out the degree of possible danger of routers, the radiation was compared:

from microwave ovens;
from mobile phones;
from routers.

The microwave turned out to be the most dangerous at home. Its rays, with prolonged exposure, can change the structure of living tissues. Therefore, vegetables and fruits that lie within a radius of two meters from the device quickly spoil or become as if they were cooked. It is not recommended to use them.

If a person is in the place of these vegetables, then after a long stay near the device he will experience dizziness and weakness.

Mobile devices (tablets, phones, etc.) showed a lower degree of radiation. They can significantly influence a person only if he constantly carries the device with him, and close to his body. It is not recommended to carry mobile phones in pockets near the genitals. But when used in moderation, the devices are not dangerous.

The most harmless router turned out to be the one whose power is minimal. There were no noticeable changes in the behavior, health, or tissue structure of the subjects during the experiment.

Only a minimal effect on the human nervous system was noticed, which can easily be eliminated if you move 2-3 meters away from the Wi-Fi router. Routers are virtually secure.

The conclusion of experts is this: you need to pay less attention to newfangled inventions, including the router. Due to improved technology, new products emit minimal harmful waves.

Opinion of children's pediatricians

Expert opinion taken from Nadezhda Koloskova. She is a pediatrician of the highest category. The woman gained access to research and examined many people who constantly use routers.

She made the following conclusions:

it takes several decades to fully study the impact of Wi-Fi;
you need to minimize the presence of children near routers, but not completely limit them;
There will be minimal harm if a child or adult uses wireless technologies less.

Like most scientists, Nadezhda Koloskova suggests that the influence of routers on the human body is insignificant, but still exists.

Oncologists' opinion

The International Association of Narcologists, using the research of scientists from various countries, has not identified a direct relationship between electromagnetic radiation from routers and the appearance of cancerous tumors. One of the experts, David Backstein, supported this opinion with data from the International Journal of Epidemiology.

The article reviewed by Backstein lists about a dozen studies on the effects of gadgets on the brain, nervous system and internal organs. No direct carcinogenic effect was found.

Research on the connection between cancer and wireless Internet does not stop at the moment.

How to reduce the dangers posed by radiation

Due to the fact that the effect of the devices has not been fully studied, it is recommended to limit the use of wireless Internet, especially among children. This will protect the nervous system from possible harmful changes.

the router should not be placed in a children's room;
the device should be located away from the bedroom - above the front door opening, where most devices are now installed;
It is better to turn off the equipment at night;
the child needs to limit access to Wi-Fi, but not by force, but by trying to distract him to another, more useful activity.

What you shouldn't be afraid of

It has been precisely established that brain activity does not change depending on the duration of exposure to the device. That is, it does not affect the nervous system or has a completely unnoticeable effect.

Cancerous tumors have nothing to do with Wi-Fi. They grow due to serious electromagnetic radiation, but routers produce too little background.

The waves do not affect the structure of the blood in any way. In this regard, you don’t have to worry about blood cancer and other blood vessel diseases.

The only thing that radiation can indirectly affect is human vision. But here the connection is very weak.

Wireless networks force a person to be on the Internet more often, which causes damage to his vision. However, this relationship is also applicable to other devices: TV, telephone, computer. And in this case the router does not cause any specific harm.

Is radiation from a wireless Internet network harmful?

Router- an incompletely studied device that may have a minor effect on the condition of weakened people or children.

Scientists will draw accurate conclusions about its influence in a few decades. In the meantime, you need to try to moderately protect yourself from the influence of Wi-Fi radiation.

You should be especially careful with children who constantly use wireless Internet. The influence of electromagnetic radiation on them is increased.

Modern people in large cities are so accustomed to newfangled gadgets and constant “contact” with the Internet that sometimes they don’t even think about the possible harm of “new products.” One of the “invisible” problems is the already familiar wi-fi signal, which already covers more than 70% of the territory of large cities. Today we will look into the possible harm from Wi-Fi to the human body.

Wi-Fi is an electromagnetic signal, a wireless technology that ensures the interaction (transmission of information) of various devices via a radio signal channel with a certain frequency.

The question of whether Wi-Fi is harmful can be classified as a question, is there life on Mars? No one can say either one or the other with 100% certainty, since there is no accurate data on this. Everyone makes the decision for themselves personally. We’ll just try to figure out what the possible dangers of Wi-Fi are.

When talking about such a problem as the harm of Wi-Fi, the danger should be considered not in the signal itself, but in the degree of its power. If the purpose of the source is to transmit a signal over long distances, then its power should be much higher than that of a standard router that is installed in a small office or apartment.

The Wi-Fi signal, like any electromagnetic radiation, in any case does not bring any benefit to the human body, again, it all depends on its power. In other words, we can say that Wi-Fi is harmful “in large quantities.”

The child's body is most susceptible to any negative influence from the outside, including electromagnetic radiation. Experts who oppose the use of Wi-Fi among children argue their concerns by the fact that the child has a thinner cranial bone, as well as a not fully formed nervous system. In their opinion, the negative impact of wireless technologies can cause decreased motor skills, weakened attention and memory impairment in children.

Doctors are also not very loyal regarding the impact of Wi-Fi on men’s health, in particular, on the level of potency and sperm quality. It is believed that a powerful radio signal can affect cells, causing them to move closer together and increase intracellular temperature. There is no scientific evidence for this theory, but experts’ fears are not always unfounded.

Counterarguments or why Wi-Fi is harmless

In ordinary life, we encounter radio waves quite often, without even thinking about it. TVs, radios, mobile phones are all devices that receive radio signals, so a router, laptop or other gadget equipped with a Wi-Fi module is far from the only source of such influence.

Scientific physical data is that the power of a Wi-Fi router is most often 63 milliwatts. For comparison, we can cite the fact that the power of a mobile phone at the time of a conversation is 1 watt, which is tens of times stronger than the power of Wi-Fi, especially since the router is located much further from our body than a mobile phone.

Official position of the Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization

Unlike the situation with mobile communications, there is currently no official conclusion from health authorities about the undeniable harm of Wi-Fi. At the same time, most doctors recommend that, if possible, you independently take measures to reduce the impact of electromagnetic radiation on the body, including the Wi-Fi signal.

As you know, the signal power decreases in proportion to the distance - the further a person is from the signal source, the less will be the degree of its impact on the body. In order to reduce harm from Wi-Fi, it is recommended not to install a Wi-Fi router directly near people’s locations.

In this article we will discuss one of the questions that readers often ask - how does radiation from a router affect human health? A router is an active network device (performs the functions of an Internet gateway) necessary for connecting networks that differ in network addresses, data transfer protocols and network interfaces.

Typically, a router (router) is located at the junction of 2 networks and has a WAN port. Through this port, the router connects to the provider's network. In addition, the router is equipped with several LAN ports, through which the router connects to computers on the end user’s local network. The main purpose of the router is to select the most optimal directions for data transfer between various nodes on the network. If you look at it globally, the Internet is interconnected by a large number of routers. An ordinary user, while on the Internet, may not even be aware of this. Currently, Wi-Fi routers, or otherwise called wireless routers, are becoming increasingly widespread. Many people often worry about whether a Wi-Fi router is harmful? Let's try to understand this painful issue.

Purpose of Wi-Fi routers

Wi-Fi routers allow you to create your own wireless Wi-Fi networks right at home. Various laptops, netbooks, tablets or smartphones are equipped with built-in Wi-Fi adapters to interact with the router. In principle, you can also buy a Wi-Fi adapter for a desktop computer if it is not possible to connect the PC using a cable. But the advent of Wi-Fi routers has also given rise to many questions among users. Most modern routers allow you to simultaneously use both a wired and Wi-Fi connection.

Such routers make it possible to distribute the Internet to several users in an apartment at once, which is undoubtedly very convenient. But, if you can connect a limited number of devices using a cable (the number depends on how many LAN ports the router has), then using Wi-Fi you can connect an almost unlimited number of smartphones or laptops (in fact, the number of connections is limited only by the speed of your Internet connections).

Is a wifi router harmful?

If you rummage well in the literature or on various Internet forums, you can find a large amount of fragmentary and contradictory information about the dangers of wireless networks for the human body. A number of organizations have repeatedly raised the issue of banning the use of wireless networks on the premises of schools and other educational institutions.

At the same time, many research institutes present a number of arguments that refute the idea that the router is harmful. It is very difficult to figure out who is actually right, since the concept of harm itself is very vague, and if you wish, you can even prove the harm of slippers.

Basic radiation parameters of the router

The main and most important parameter that affects the human body is called the absolute optical radiation power. The optical power of radiation is measured in decibel milliwatts (dBm). Any mobile phone emits radiation power equal to 27 dBm. The main dose of radiation occurs at the time of calling the subscriber and searching for a mobile network signal. Therefore, if at this moment the device is at a short distance from a person, it can have a negative effect on the body. The main condition for this is the duration of the radiation provided. Whether a router is harmful also depends on its location in the apartment and its distance from the residents. The radiation power of the wireless router is around 20 dBm. Moreover, unlike a mobile phone, this equipment is most often located at a distance of at least one or two meters. Therefore, even when compared with mobile communications, the radiation from the router on a person turns out to be several times less.

According to the HPA (Health Protection Agency), which is an official organization located in England and responsible for ensuring the health safety of residents of the British islands, today there is no direct evidence that the router is harmful to human health. Any wireless equipment has very low radiating power, which is simply not able to cause any harm to the body. The radio frequencies used in Wi-Fi equipment are analogues of conventional radio frequencies that have been used for decades in FM radio and television equipment. Therefore, we can safely say that the harm from Wi-Fi networks is comparable to the harm that can be caused by any other radio networks, and as we know, no casualties from the radiation of an FM receiver have yet been recorded. Of course, whether a router is harmful to health is up to everyone to decide for themselves, but at least modern science says that radiation from Wi-Fi routers is absolutely safe.

Many modern residents are interested in the question of whether a router is harmful to human health. Of course, Wi-Fi is convenient, but many doubt the security of this modern device.

It was first used back in one thousand nine hundred and ninety-seven; since then, many studies have been carried out on whether a Wi-Fi router is harmful to human health. The results are obvious and shocking - Wi-fi can negatively affect overall health, and especially brain functionality. The main negative impact is on children.

Perhaps most shockingly, this information is quite outdated and virtually no one has been able to challenge it. Over the years, scientists have written many works and conducted a number of studies regarding this problem. For example, in 2008, articles appeared in the free press explaining the dangers of Wi-Fi and what effect radiation has on the human brain.

Based on this information, it becomes clear that the harm from Wi-Fi is very obvious, so you need to use this device with care.

To avoid major harm, it is important to install routers in the correct location initially and ensure that children are not around for too long.

What are the dangers when using Wi-Fi devices?

To understand whether Wi-Fi is harmful, it is enough to familiarize yourself with its mechanism of action.

Based on research results, it has been established that Wi-Fi has a harmful effect on humans.

Scientists have established several types of negative effects on the body from radiation from Wi-Fi devices.

The main negative reactions that appear in a person are:

Insomnia.
Disturbances in fetal development.
Disturbances in the functioning of the central nervous system.

Manifestations of insomnia. Reports of these phenomena are quite frequent, and even prompted a study in two thousand and seven. It assessed low-frequency modulation of devices and its effect on sleep. The group of experimental participants exposed to radiation reported poor sleep and changes in brain activity.

Problems related to fetal development. Exposure to non-thermal radio waves emanating from the device may disrupt the normal development of body cells, especially in the fetus. An animal study has shown that a router in an apartment may be associated with the fact that the unborn child will have kidney problems. In fact, the disruption of protein synthesis is so severe that expectant mothers should seriously consider removing the router from the home.

Negatively affects the functioning of the nervous system. When many children found it difficult to concentrate after sleep, scientists conducted an experiment to test the effect of a Wi-Fi router on children's sleep. True, the experiments were carried out on plants, the result was a little shocking; the greenery located near the device grew much slower than plants located far from the Wi-Fi router.

Disorders in the body caused by Wi-Fi devices

In addition to what is indicated above, the harm from Wi-Fi to health may manifest itself in other ways. For example, it is known that if you install the device in the room where a child sleeps, then, most likely, the baby will encounter problems related to memory concentration. Using MRI equipment, it was possible to establish how harmful Wi-Fi is for the baby’s body. The child’s brain suffers the most; its activity decreases.

But in addition to children, female representatives are also at risk. For them, the router is just as harmful to health as for younger users.

Of course, it is difficult to say that people should completely stop using these installations. Modern technologies are developing and it is simply impossible to completely limit yourself from their negative impact. But in any case, certain measures should be taken to protect against such influence.

It has already been said above how harmful routers are for women and children. Short waves have a negative impact on the well-being of men. Their reproductive function suffers the most. Under the influence of radio radiation, sperm activity is greatly reduced, and accordingly, there is a risk of encountering infertility problems. Short-wave radiation causes DNA fragmentation.

But that’s not all, it turns out that the waves directly affect human fertility. Studies have shown that literally after two hours of exposure throughout the day, the level of abnormal pregnancy increases significantly.

Having studied the information presented above, it is not difficult to conclude whether there is harm to the human body.

Of course, routers have a negative effect on the human body, which raises concerns regarding their regular use.

Doctors' opinions on the use of devices with wi-fi communication

Regarding whether it is harmful to use Wi-Fi or mobile phones, all doctors have long given the same affirmative answer. Of course, these devices have a negative effect on the human body.

Especially if you are constantly near them. Regular contact leads to very bad consequences for human health. Moreover, everyone without exception falls under the negative influence. Of course, children and women who are pregnant suffer the most. In this position, you should try not to be near such devices and avoid constant contact with mobile devices.

It is especially dangerous to keep your phone under your pillow while sleeping and sleep in a room where the short-wave emitter device is located. This has a very negative impact on a person’s well-being.

Anyone who has kept a phone under their pillow all night, or who has objects emitting short waves in their room near their bed, complains that in the morning they feel broken and exhausted, as if they haven’t slept a wink all night.

To avoid this, it is better to install routers in housing where it is possible to allocate a separate room for the device, or at least it will not be located in the room where people sleep.

What is important to remember when using wi-fi devices?

We must not forget that you should not keep any wireless devices near your sleeping place or the room where you spend most of your time. Otherwise, constant presence of this item nearby can lead to the development of serious health problems.

Some studies conducted in this area have shown that if you stay near the device for a long time and regularly, the process of developing cancerous tumors may begin. Therefore, it is better to find a more suitable place for your router.

One such case involved a young 21-year-old woman who developed breast cancer. What makes this case unique is that there was no family history of breast cancer. Moreover, the tumor formed right on the spot where she carried her mobile phone in her bra. It should be noted that the harm from wifi is the same as from mobile phones.

Accordingly, answering the question of whether a router is harmful to health, it should be noted that it has a very strong negative effect on the human body. It is clear that it is impossible to completely abandon the use of similar items, but you should try to keep laptops, wireless computers, mobile phones and routers near you as little as possible. A safe distance must be maintained.

It is necessary to undergo regular examinations that can identify in the early stages of development possible disorders in the body caused by close and frequent contact with devices emitting short-wave radiation.

The answer to the question of whether wi fi is harmful to human health is affirmative, so it is recommended to protect yourself as much as possible from the negative effects of radiation. Particular care should be taken for children and women who are pregnant. For them, precautions should be observed much more strictly and then the harm to health will be minimal or can be avoided altogether. By the way, not as strong as the damage from the radiation generated by the router.

In 1996, a method of wireless transmission of digital information was invented - Wireless Fidelity. Today this technology is known to everyone as Wi-Fi (Wi-Fi). Wi-Fi routers can be found in almost all offices and residential buildings. By transmitting a signal to computers, laptops, tablets and smartphones, it allows you to use the Internet anywhere in the room and even outside. But is it safe for human health? Is a Wi-Fi router in an apartment harmful? How to minimize the danger? These questions concern not only grandparents, who are wary of everything new that technological progress brings with it. Don't think that people who are afraid to use Wi-Fi are paranoid. Their fears for their health and the well-being of younger generations have a real basis. Today we will try to figure out how serious these reasons are.

How Wi-Fi can be harmful to humans

Wireless information transfer is carried out by transmitting radio signals from one point to another. This is done at 2.4 GHz frequency. It is this frequency that is reserved in most states as a frequency on which it is allowed to transmit and receive radio signals without having a license to organize the activities of a radio station. Obviously, it is at this frequency that all household appliances using radio waves operate. These devices include microwave ovens, cellular and regular cordless phones, and alarm systems.

It so happens that the specified frequency is included in the range of frequencies that the human body is capable of perceiving at the cellular level. Nobody really knows how this might affect him years and decades later. Claims that mutations can occur because of this, cancerous tumors can form and other serious consequences can be observed are unfounded. The arguments here are “logic”, “intuition”, “personal observations” and “life experience”, but not scientific research. No less groundless, due to the lack of such studies, are claims about the complete safety of Wi-Fi.

Even the World Health Organization (WHO) got off with a vague answer on this matter:

“Based on recent in-depth monitoring of the scientific literature, WHO has concluded that there is currently no evidence of any health effects due to exposure to low-level electromagnetic fields. At the same time, there are certain gaps in knowledge about biological effects; the issue needs further study.”

Confirmed facts

It is obvious that the waves affect the human body, but how strong and dangerous this effect is is still unknown. We suggest not to fantasize, picturing a frightening dystopia, and not to brush aside the problem, but to analyze some of the facts that are at our disposal.

Another fact suggests that the radiation from a working Wi-Fi router is negligible compared to electromagnetic waves from industrial and military facilities. This is just a tiny part of the worldwide “electromagnetic smog” that has shrouded our planet. Even if in your apartment you decide not only to make do with a wired Internet connection, but also give up the microwave, mobile communications, television and computer in general, you will still be influenced by waves from your neighbors’ apartments, nearby office buildings, and other objects . Strictly speaking, your sacrifice will be completely in vain.