Harmful Radiation With AirPort Express

Recently I've purchased an Airport Express. My wife is worried about harmful radiation of it on our body especially our twin 3.5 years/old childs.

Now I really don't know what should I do? continue or discontinue use of airport? After turning my macbook WiFi on, I can see about 7-8 wifi password protected networks around our building and so my network has been added to these list.

I usually use wifi network about 2-3 hours/ day.

MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2012), OS X Mountain Lion (10.8.3)

Posted on Dec 19, 2013 12:41 PM

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24 replies

Dec 20, 2013 11:58 AM in response to mohammad233

mohammad233 wrote:


Then Wifi is more harmful than cell phones. We stay connected with Wifi for hours, but call with cell phones a few minutes ! Hours versus minutes .

No, there is a thing called the inverse square rule..


If you double the distance from a radiation source the intensity of the radiation drops by 4 times.


wifi at 30mw is not pressed up against your ear. Even if you are using it a few meters from your body.. your total exposure is minimal..


Measure the distance.. phone to your ear.. from the antenna in the phone to your head.. 2cm at most..

If you move to 4cm you have half the radiation..

Move to 8cm you hav half again.

Move to 16xm you have half again.

etc.. up to say 1M

That means you halve the radiation level 6 times.. so from 250mw.. you have an effective radiation level of 4mW


A 1 hour conversation on the phone.. where you talk for 30min.. will give you the same radiation exposure as a week of continuous wifi


That is why Kappy said to throw away your phone.. that is exposing you much worse.. to a worse position.. straight into your brain.. than any wifi is going to do.


Of course we don't actually believe it does any harm at all since I have been talking on cordless and mobile phones for an awful long time.

Dec 20, 2013 1:08 PM in response to mohammad233

The only protection that you can do is move to a cave .. we already explained that.. If you want to use modern wifi devices in your home.. then you must have some level of RF working in the home..


This is totally and completely harmless.. there is no scientific proof that low level rf is bad or dangerous.. there is lots of quakery.. ie non scientific attempts to prove some harm.. If you sincerely believe you are being harmed.. and are prepared to throw away a science based method of determining safe life style.. then you need to escape the modern world .. because even if you don't have wifi and mobile phones and TV etc your neighbour does..

Dec 20, 2013 2:01 PM in response to mohammad233

As everyone else already pointed out, there is no reason to be concerned.


Everything in the known universe is subjected to radiation of some variety. Electromagnetic radiation can be broadly categorized into ionizing and non-ionizing. "Ionizing" radiation means it has sufficient energy to liberate electrons from their orbit while non-ionizing doesn't. Neither category is considered particularly beneficial to human health, but life of all variety nevertheless evolved and continues to thrive in its presence. Evolution would not occur without it, and life would not be possible in its absence.


Of the two, ionizing radiation has the ability to alter human and plant cell reproduction and growth due to the energy it carries. Examples of ionizing radiation are x-rays, gamma rays, radiation from the sky (cosmic rays), even radiation from the ground (radon gas - so forget about living in a cave). It can harm you, if you are exposed to it in sufficient quantity and duration, but negligibly small exposures are also of negligible concern.


Non-ionizing radiation does not have sufficient energy to alter cell reproduction and growth. Examples of non-ionizing radiation are radio signals, radiation from power lines, and the Wi-Fi you are concerned about. It is all around us and there is no escaping it either, as long as people do the things that generate electromagnetic energy enabling them to work in a civilized society.


There is no single distinct line separating these two categories but the spectrum of visible light can be considered as such, broad as it is. At its two extremes there is ultraviolet - closer to the ionizing category, and infrared - closer to the non-ionizing category. Prolonged exposure to ultraviolet light isn't a good idea; it can promote skin cancer for example, but your layer of human skin prevents it from reaching internal organs. Prolonged exposure to infrared light just makes you too hot. Infrared space heaters are useful to heat people working outdoors because the radiation isn't blown away by the wind. If you have an electric infrared space heater you know how much power it uses when you pay your electric bill.


Not only is your AirPort's radiation well within the non-ionizing region, its power is orders of magnitude less than your infrared space heater. It can't possibly harm you or your children, even if you were to put it under you pillow every night.


Cats are another story: Airport Extreme Safe for my Cat to Sleep on?

Dec 20, 2013 2:42 PM in response to John Galt

Hi John Galt and LaPastenague,


Not on topic, but we apparently have word from Apple regarding Time Machine backups to the "new" AirPort Extreme as of December 19.


The pertinent info is all the way down at the bottom.


Unfortunately, no mention of any additional radiation concerns regarding the use of Time Machine. 😉


http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5924?viewlocale=en_US&locale=en_US

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Harmful Radiation With AirPort Express

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