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School Wi-Fi Plan Controversial Among Edmonton Parents

9:08 pm on January 11, 2011 | Category: Wi-Fi, Wireless Technology

A group of Edmonton, Alberta parents are asking local school trustees to keep Wi-Fi internet access out of public schools, voicing concerns about possible health effects on students.

“Wi-Fi in schools can be 20 to 30 times the strength of Wi-Fi in your house, so the children are exposed to that radiation coming from the Wi-Fi for the entire duration of the day,” one parent was quoted as saying.

Wi-Fi technology has been around for upwards of ten years, of course, and its presence in millions of homes and offices around the world has yet to produce any hard evidence of negative health consequences. (Health Canada and the World Health Organization both take the position that Wi-Fi is not dangerous.)

School officials have argued that Wi-Fi will increase the number of students that have access to the internet.

“We believe Wi-Fi is an important part of the infrastructure to enable the use of 21st-century technologies in education,” school district staff said in a report.

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