wavLength: September 12, 2007 Archive

A triple-whammy of alarmist tech-is-bad-for-your-health news from Europe this week. Citing radiation exposure risks, the German government is warning citizens to avoid using Wi-Fi. From the Independent on Sunday:

People should avoid using Wi-Fi wherever possible because of the risks it may pose to health, the German government has said.

Its surprise ruling – the most damning made by any government on the fast-growing technology – will shake the industry and British ministers, and vindicates the questions that The Independent on Sunday has been raising over the past four months.

And Germany's official radiation protection body also advises its citizens to use landlines instead of mobile phones, and warns of "electrosmog" from a wide range of other everyday products, from baby monitors to electric blankets.

(deletia)

The Environment Ministry recommended that people should keep their exposure to radiation from Wi-Fi "as low as possible" by choosing "conventional wired connections". It added that it is "actively informing people about possibilities for reducing personal exposure".

If those Wi-Fi signals send you to hospital, don't use your cell phone there. From Reuters:

Using mobile phones near hospital beds or important equipment is dangerous and could switch off ventilators or disrupt pacemakers, Dutch researchers said on Thursday.

The University of Amsterdam researchers recorded nearly 50 incidents of electromagnetic interference from mobile phone use in hospitals and classified 75 per cent of them as significant or hazardous.

Because of this, mobile phones should come no closer than 1m to hospital beds and equipment, said the researchers who published their study in BioMed Central's online open access journal Critical Care.

These findings appear to be in direct opposition to those of the Mayo Clinic, which earlier this year concluded that

Calls made on cellular phones have no negative impact on hospital medical devices, dispelling the long-held notion that they are unsafe to use in health care facilities...

Who to believe? It's enough to make one want to find comfort and social isolation behind a set of iPod earbuds. Be careful! From the BBC:

More than two-thirds of young people who regularly use MP3 players face premature hearing damage because the volume is too high, a charity warns.

The Royal National Institute for Deaf People said its findings were alarming, particularly with eight million MP3 players sold last year alone in the UK.

It accused manufacturers of failing to put clear and prominent warnings on packaging for consumers.

RNID urges MP3 player fans to invest in in-ear filters for headphones.

RNID appears to be taking a more alarmist view than a researcher at Children's Hospital in Boston. From Future Tense last year:

A new study says you can listen to your digital music player at a reasonably high volume for a long time without sustaining damage to your ears.

Study co-author Brian Fligor of Children's Hospital Boston says you probably won't sustain hearing loss if you keep the volume under 80 percent of maximum, even if you listen for long periods. You're in the danger zone if you listen at more than 80 percent for more than 90 minutes, but you have to be rockin' at that level for 10 years before you notice any hearing loss, says Fligor.