Experts quash Wi-Fi cancer rumor

The Guangzhou Daily on Monday cited experts as saying that using Wi-Fi doesn't cause cancer and poses no danger to health.

The Wi-Fi cancer myth has dominated social media recently, as five Danish girls who had trouble focusing in class after sleeping with cellphones near their heads overnight began an experiment and found that Wi-Fi routers stunted seeds from growing normally.

Xin Like, an engineer in the Engineering Physics Department at Tsinghua University, together with a seeds company conducted a similar 12-day experiment to monitor the growth of common plant seeds near Wi-Fi routers in one room and others in another room without Wi-Fi routers.

The result released Saturday showed that all the seeds grew normally.

Xin thus concluded that electromagnetic radiation within a safe range doesn't pose health risks.

The non-government Songshuhui Association of Science Communicators put an end to rumors before that Wi-Fi signals kill sperm.

Jiao Shuming, a member of the association who got his PhD in electronic engineering at City University of Hong Kong, said at present the evidence of a possible link between RF (radiofrequency fields) energy exposure and cancer risk is far from conclusive and more research is needed.

Jiao said Britain's Health Protection Agency found RF exposures from Wi-Fi are likely to be lower than in mobile phones.