To the editor:
Re: "'Internet of Things' will tap anything, everything," March 16.
There's an aspect to this invasion of wireless technologies which is still under the radar (pun intended) but which will be surfacing in public discussion more and more: the long-term health effects of exposure to pulsed RF (radio frequency) signals. Those are the signals used by cellphones, Wi-Fi, wi-max, cordless phones, smart meters, RFID, etc. in the UHF range (hundreds of millions to billions of Hz) that most of us in urban environments are constantly exposed to.
Generally the short-term health effects of such exposure is considered to be negligible, but it is the long-term effects, especially from childhood onwards, that is not well-documented. The public at large is being subjected to an ongoing health experiment similar to what went on in the post-war era (1950s to 1990s) around exposure to various environmental chemicals.
My personal choice would be to err on the side of caution by minimizing exposure whichever way I can; for example leaving my wireless device at home when I don't absolutely need it, or using a cable connection to my computer rather than Wi-Fi. Unfortunately "living in a tree" as Courier columnist Geoff Olson suggests is not as yet an option for me.
Charles Leduc,
Vancouver
