Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey brain Stuff. I'm Lauren Vogelbaum, and today's episode is a classic from our previous host, Christian Sager. This one tackles the question of whether WiFi signals are dangerous to we humans who live increasingly among them. But just so you don't panic spoiler alert, the answer is most likely nope,
are you there, brain Stuff, It's me Christian Sager. Do you ever think about how, with wireless internet floating around us, that we're all just waiting through gigabytes of HTML, MP three's, JPEG's, first person shooters and entire podcasts like this one. Even if you don't have a router and you avoid the library and your local coffee shop, WiFi is everywhere, So your next question might be whether all that WiFi is safe or not? What is it? And how does it
affect a human body. Well, first, the term WiFi means a wireless network, not wireless fidelity. That is a common misconception. These wireless networks translate data into radio signals and then transmit and receive those signals via antennas, so WiFi is made of radio waves. These are part of the broad range of frequencies that make up the electromagnetic spectrum. We know that some radiation on that spectrum, like gamma rays, X rays, or high frequency ultraviolet light, can be dangerous.
These waves are known as ionizing radiation. There's so high an energy that they can break apart atoms and damage our DNA, but the non ionizing wavelengths are too low an energy to ionize atoms or molecules. Since radio waves Likewifi are non ionizing, they tend to be safe. The intensity of a WiFi signal is rather low. WiFi is most often transmitted at a frequency of two point four
giga hurts, about the same as most microwave ovens. For comparison, a lightbulb amidst non ionizing radiation up to four hundred nanometers, which converts to hold on a second seven eighty one giga hurts. That makes lightbulbs over sixty two thousand times stronger than WiFi. Wireless network routers also broadcast further distances than microwave ovens, which is important because every time you double the distance of a radio wave, you only get
a quarter of its energy. That is called the inverse square law of physics, which means Wifi's intensity drops off sharply the further you get from a device emitting it. If you're still wondering why microwave ovens cook food, but your WiFi router doesn't consider a microwave ovens walls, they're specifically designed to reflect microwave radiation in very particular directions.
That creates interference between the waves. That results standing waves which oscillate in place in particular parts of the microwave. That's why sometimes your frozen dinner doesn't cook uniformly, especially
without a turntable. Now, despite WiFi being broadcast at this safe frequency, there are some controversial health concerns associated with the radiation it emits, and while there is no definitive link, the World Health Organization also known as WHO, does recognize that some studies show preliminary connections between these types of radiation and human illness. They categorize it as a class to be carcinogen, something possibly carcinogenic in humans at given exposures.
Cell phones in particular have been scrutinized. Some disputed studies have also argued that children are more at risk from devices that radiate radio waves or microwaves, or that electromagnetic radiation is a risk factor for cancer into one eleven, who also classified mobile phones as possibly carcinogenic, but to date there's still isn't strong evidence, especially because it's difficult to prove a link between long term tumor development and
radio frequency exposure. Scientists continue to do research in this area, but your actual wireless Internet connection does not seem to be harmful, and if you're still concerned, your other option is to wrap yourself up in aluminum foil to keep a few of these frequencies at bay. No, really, I'm not kidding. Aluminum foil creates a Faraday cage which disrupts electromagnetic sixty. Today's episode was written by me and produced
by Tyler Clang. For more on this lots of other topics, visit our home planet, howstuff Works dot com and for more podcasts. For my heart radio is the heart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.