Letter
doi: 10.1111/1753-6405.12742
Comments on “Wi-Fi radiation exposures to children in kindergartens and schools – results should lessen parental concerns” S.M. Javad Mortazavi1
1. Diagnostic Imaging Center, Fox Chase Cancer Center, US
This letter is regarding the concerns about the article entitled “Wi-Fi radiation exposures to children in kindergartens and schools – results should lessen parental concerns” by Bhatt et al. published in the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health.1 My colleagues and I have studied the health effects of radiofrequency electromagnetic fields over the past decade. Despite its challenging topic, the paper authored by Bhatt et al. has major shortcomings. The problematic approach used by the authors to show that based on current findings, parents should decrease their concerns regarding WiFi, is a major shortcoming of this paper. The authors have ignored the reports indicating Wi-Fi users at least should avoid long-term exposures.2 It has been shown that long-term exposure to 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi radiofrequency radiation can lead to neurodegenerative diseases3 or adverse alterations in reproductive parameters.2 In spite of the evidence indicating adverse health effects of Wi-Fi radiofrequency radiation,4-7 the authors have only focused on the lack of epidemiological data regarding “Wi-Fi alone” exposures. Nevertheless, epidemiological studies examining health effects of Wi-Fi alone are not available as most of the RF-EMR epidemiological studies so far involved exposures to mobile and cordless phones, mobile phone base stations, radio/TV towers, etc. Wi-Fi installations (‘hotspots’/routers) send and receive RF-EMR to and from Wi-Fi enabled devices such as laptops, tablets/iPads and smart phones. As an analogy, due to lack of epidemiological data about carcinogenesis of space radiation, the authors should ask NASA to decrease the current concerns about the astronauts’ cancer risk in long-term manned missions! It’s worth noting that in many other situations, due to
factors such as small sample size and the long latency of the health effects (e.g. cancer), no epidemiological data are currently available. It should be noted that radiofrequency is a Class 2B (possible) carcinogen. Another shortcoming of this paper comes from ignoring the higher susceptibility of children to radiofrequency radiation. Some studies show that the absorption of radiofrequency radiation in children is greater than that of adults.8 It has been reported that as children have smaller heads, thinner skulls, and higher conductivity of brain tissue, the absorption of radiofrequency in children is higher than adults.9,10 Therefore, the exposure of children to radiofrequency is a real concern, and the suggestion of Bhatt et al. regarding decreasing parental concerns seems to be invalid
References 1. Bhatt CR, Abramson MJ, Benke G. Wi-Fi radiation exposures to children in kindergartens and schools results should lessen parental concerns. Aust N Z J Public Health. 2017. doi: 10.1111/1753-6405. 2. Dasdag S, Tas M, Akdag MZ, Yegin K. Effect of long-term exposure of 2.4 GHz radiofrequency radiation emitted from Wi-Fi equipment on testes functions. Electromagn Biol Med. 2015;34(1):37-42. 3. Dasdag S, Akdag MZ, Erdal ME, Erdal N, Ay OI, Ay ME, et al. Effects of 2.4 GHz radiofrequency radiation emitted from Wi-Fi equipment on microRNA expression in brain tissue. Int J Radiat Biol. 2015;91(7):555-61. 4. Mortazavi SA, Taeb S, Mortazavi SM, Zarei S, Haghani M, Habibzadeh P, et al. The fundamental reasons why laptop computers should not be used on your lap. J Biomed Phys Eng. 2016;6(4):279-84. 5. Paknahad M, Mortazavi SM, Shahidi S, Mortazavi G, Haghani M. Effect of radiofrequency radiation from Wi-Fi devices on mercury release from amalgam restorations. J Environ Health Sci Eng. 2016;14:12. 6. Shekoohi-Shooli F, Mortazavi SM, Shojaei-Fard MB, Nematollahi S, Tayebi M. Evaluation of the protective role of vitamin c on the metabolic and enzymatic activities of the liver in the male rats after exposure to 2.45 GHz Of Wi-Fi routers. J Biomed Phys Eng. 2016;6(3):157-64. 7. Taheri M, Mortazavi SM, Moradi M, Mansouri S, Hatam GR, Nouri F. Evaluation of the effect of radiofrequency radiation emitted from wi-fi router and mobile phone simulator on the antibacterial susceptibility of pathogenic bacteria listeria monocytogenes and Escherichia coli. Dose Response. 2017;15(1):1559325816688527. 8. Morgan LL, Kesari S, Davis DL. Why children absorb more microwave radiation than adults: The consequences. J Microsc Ultrastruct. 2014;2(4):197-204. 9. Gandhi OP, Morgan LL, de Salles AA, Han YY, Herberman RB, Davis DL. Exposure limits: The underestimation of absorbed cell phone radiation, especially in children. Electromagn Biol Med. 2012;31(1):34-51. 10. Hardell L. Effects of mobile phones on children’s and adolescents’ health: A commentary. Child Dev. 2017. doi: 10.1111/cdev.12831. Correspondence to: Dr S.M. Javad Mortazavi, Fox Chase Cancer Center, Doss Lab R-432, 333 Cottman Avenue, Philadelphia, PA 19111, US; e-mail:
[email protected]
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non-commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made.
2017 Online
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health © 2017 The Authors
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