Is Wi-Fi Harmful to Your Health?

It's hard to go anywhere these days without some sort of Wi-Fi connection humming through the atmosphere. Schools, public places, neighborhoods, workplaces--Wi-Fi is everywhere people are (whether you can access it or not.) And despite how great it is to have Wi-Fi, and the advantages it brings to our daily lives, there are still a few folks out there who think Wi-Fi is actually doing more harm than good. By harm, they mean physical harm stemming from radiation emanating from our routers and Wi-Fi enabled devices. 

But really...is Wi-Fi harmful? Does it emit radiation that can have negative affects on our health? The short answer is...no. 

Here's why. Radiation isn't just some blanket term. There are different kinds of radiation, and the type emanating from Wi-Fi routers isn't the kind that can hurt you.  Radiation is everywhere, actually. And in most instances it's completely harmless. How-To-Geek did a great article explaining what different radiation is by saying:

"The most critical concept when it comes to talking about radiation is the distinction between ionizing and non-ionizing radiation. Ionizing radiation is the dangerous stuff and includes x-ray radiation, gamma radiation, and some amount of ultra-violet light on the high end of the ultra-violet spectrum. The key element here is the wavelength of the radiation type. Ionizing radiation gets is name because it has enough energy to excite electrons and knock them out of their orbit, or ionize, them. Extensive exposure to this kind of radiation is highly detrimental to the your health, and even low but persistent exposure over time can significantly increase your risk of cancer as exposure can mutate your cells. Even when used for beneficial purposes (like using an x-ray machine to diagnose a patient), the exposure is carefully controlled by the use of lead vests, shielding material, and so on so that the patient and the operator of the machine are given as minimal exposure as necessary. If you’re worried about radiation, this is the radiation you should be worried about. (And even then you shouldn’t be that worried as the amount of radiation you’re exposed to during routine medical procedures is, over the course of your lifetime, less than the amount of radiation you’re exposed to over the same period on the aircraft flights you take for business and vacations.)

On the opposite side of things, we have non-ionizing radiation. This radiation does not have enough energy to ionize atoms, and includes everything else on the radiation spectrum including infrared radiation, visible light, and radio waves  — including everything from the kind of low-energy radio waves we use for walkie-talkies to higher energy radio waves like those in the microwave portion of the spectrum."

Wi-Fi is most certainly in the non-ionizing radiation type. For all intents and purposes, it'd not going to hurt you. 

Carry on with your Wi-Fi routers, remote controls, microwave ovens and so on. You'll be just fine...