Have you ever been asked if Wi-Fi is bad for our health? If you work with Wi-Fi you will have faced this question at least once, if not once every other month. There is a lot of misinformation, but lets not start with that.

Recently I was asked to provide advice on the safety of Wi-Fi in regards to human health - this came up because I had made a recommendation to place Access Points underneath seats in a tiered seat (cinema style) theatre. The under-seat design is a story for another time. It occurred to me that the audience who had raised the concern of the proximity of Access Points to people would most likely be non-technical and would not had heard "The Spiel" before. I wanted to be as prepared as possible and armed with the most up to date information I could find. So I spent an entire Saturday reading through information - here is what I found.

When reading about the effects of electromagnetic energy exposure it is important to note the radio frequencies of Wi-Fi are limited in range. Many of the studies and documents that are available relate to much wider frequencies (e.g. 0 - 300 GHz) or very targeted frequencies used in other technologies such as cellular base stations for mobile phones. The most common frequencies used for Wi-Fi occur between 2.4 GHz and 5.9 GHz.

It is also important to note that the majority of Wi-Fi deployments will operate at a transmission power much lower to the services in other frequencies such as cellular, TV and Radio broadcast.

While I've provided links to the various articles and content I have also included snippets for those who find it all a bit TLDR.

ARPANSA - Australian Radiaton Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency
Australian Government’s primary authority on radiation protection and nuclear safety. ARPANSA protect the Australian people and the environment from the harmful effects of radiation through understanding risks, best practice regulation, research, policy, services, partnerships and engaging with the community.

ACMA - Australian Communications and Media Authority
The independent statutory authority tasked with ensuring most elements of Australia's media and communications legislation, related regulations, and numerous derived standards and codes of practice operate effectively and efficiently, and in the public interest. ACMA is a 'converged' regulator, created to oversee the convergence of the four 'worlds' of telecommunications, broadcasting, radio communications and the internet.

WHO - World Health Organisation
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations that is concerned with international public health.

IEEE - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
The IEEE Standards Authority is an organization within IEEE that develops global standards in a broad range of industries, including: power and energy, biomedical and health care, information technology and robotics, telecommunication among others.

The Wi-Fi Alliance and Wi-Fi equipment manufacturers (aka Vendors) also submit perspectives and points of information to the mix. I deliberately leave material sourced from these organisations to last as it is, in most cases, referencing other material already covered by other organisations. It's also worth noting that both vendors and the Wi-Fi Alliance have an obvious bias towards finding and presenting the positive side of the story.

It is my opinion that the Wi-Fi Alliance should not be considered a reliable source for health or medical based information. Vendor information should be followed for safe use and operation guidelines but like information from the Wi-Fi Alliance should not be used as the basis for medical advice.

WFA - Wi-Fi Alliance
Wi-Fi Alliance defines innovative, standards-based Wi-Fi technologies and programs, certifies products that meet quality, performance, security, and capability standards, provides industry thought leadership, and advocates globally for fair spectrum rules.

WFA: Wi-Fi® and Health/Safety Brochure
https://www.wi-fi.org/download.php?file=/sites/default/files/private/Wi-Fi_and_Health_Brochure_2015_0.pdf
The wireless industry continually monitors information about RF health and related regulatory or policy changes to stay informed of up-to-date research and to be sure that the public can continue to have confidence in the safety of its products. In addition, Wi-Fi Alliance® supported two independent research studies both published in Health Physics, a peer-reviewed scientific journal. The first was an independent exposure study that conducted 356 measurements at 55 sites (including schools and hospitals) in four countries around the world. This study concluded that in all cases, the measured Wi-Fi signal levels were very far below international exposure limits (IEEE C95.1-2005 and ICNIRP) and in nearly all cases, far below other RF signals in the same environments.

WFA: Wi-Fi and Health
https://www.wi-fi.org/wi-fi-and-health
Due to the ubiquity of Wi-Fi technology, questions about the safety of radio waves and Wi-Fi devices tend to arise from time to time. The wireless industry takes these concerns very seriously.

There is always a possibility that the organisations referenced above will adopt new testing or theories which bring a different perspective. I recommend you stay informed and periodically review the information available. If you do find what I've shared here useful please let me know with a comment below.

Hunting down specific Access Points or clients is made easier with the Locate feature, which is an option if you select a specific station from either the Access Points or Clients lists. I liken an AirCheck in this mode to a security guards handheld metal detector for WiFi Engineers. You’ll hear beeps increasing in frequency as you near your target (this can be muted if you are hoping for a silent kill) and the signal strength indicator and histogram assist in human computed trilateration. If client or crowd density, time to find or large distances are factors in your search then the exorbitant directional antenna option would be handy. This allows the operator to better isolate the direction in which signal from the station is at its strongest.
​
Simply seeing whats nearby is cool but testing the network is where the AirCheck G2 begins to pay for itself. With the ability to associate to WPA2 Enterprise network (and all lesser options) with a great variety of EAP options the AirCheck can squash the time required to audit and test connecting to wireless networks. This is a good idea after deploying new infrastructure. You can even pre-load network profiles via the management software available for 64-bit Windows 7, 8 and 10 devices. Once connected you can perform roaming tests with detailed logging and check connectivity to DHCP, gateway, websites and DNS. Some of this data is then uploaded to Link-Live (for cloud logging) or full session data can be exported to the Windows management application.

If you are not already standing and shouting at your computer “Shut up and take my money” let me know why in the comments below. If you are interested in buying one (Australia/NZ and Asia Pacific readers) then let me know here.

Links:
AirCheck G2 - Virtual Test Drive & Product Specs
AirCheck G2 - Overview Video
WifiHax at CWNP - Dilip Advani demonstrates the AirCheck G2 live