German Government works itself up into Wi-Fi panic

Updated The German Government has told the country to avoid using Wi-Fi whenever possible, because of the possible risks to health, according to a report in UK newspaper The Independent on Sunday.

According to the newspaper, Germany's radiation protection body also suggests that citizens refrain from using mobile phones, and try to reduce their general exposure to "electrosmog" from other electrical devices.

Federal Office for Radiation Protection makes its recommendations on the basis that a possible risk has not been ruled out, rather than because an actual threat has been determined. It recommends avoiding exposure to Wi-Fi "because it is a new technology and all the research into its health effects has not yet been carried out", the IoS says.

The paper reports that the government made the statements in response to questioning from the Green party representatives in the Bundestag, the country's parliament.

The UK's Health Protection Agency had no comment on The Independent on Sunday's report, saying that its position remains as it ever was: that there is no consistent evidence to suggest that Wi-Fi poses a threat to health. Nevertheless, basic measurements should be done to determine what kind of exposures there are in schools and elsewhere, and as with every new technology, caution is the better part of valour.

Update: We're told that the parliamentary question and answer (here, as a pdf) is not quite as one might have expected from reading of the original article. Our German is rubbish, though, so anyone with better language skills than ours is warmly encouraged to read the pdf, and get in touch with us by the link above. ®