The UK Health Protection Agency has responded to recent Wi-Fi safety scares by saying "exposure assessment is an area that requires further work".
Despite reiterating that Wi-Fi uses very low power, "it is logical to consider the use of Wi-Fi in schools and in the home," says the Agency, which is to undertake a research programme.
Wi-Fi and WLANs
"There is no scientific evidence to date that Wi-Fi and WLANs adversely affect the health of the general population," says Professor Pat Troop, chief executive of the Health Protection Agency. "[But] there has not been extensive research into what people's exposures actually are to this new technology and that is why we are initiating this new programme of research and analyses.
"We have good scientific reasons to expect the results to be reassuring and we will publish our findings."
The Health Protection Agency proposes to measure exposures to radio signals from wireless networks and says the results will be "compared with established international exposure guidelines".