I have a question regarding this Netgear 3800 Wireless Router:
Is the level of radiation emitted by the wireless dangerous ? It is advertised as dual-band but no mention about SAR.
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{Grin} Nah, no worries.... I wouldn't put it under your pillow though... awfully lumpy. But @spiff pretty much nailed it... actually less than a cell phone.– lornixJul 2, 2012 at 11:38
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1 Answer
Nope, nothing to worry about. Cell phones use 1000 milliWatts (mW) or more to reach a cell tower that may be kilometers away, while Wi-Fi gear typically uses 100mW or less to reach gear less than 50 meters away. Plus you don't hold the AP to your head, it sits 1-50 meters away from you.
Note that Wi-Fi is just radio waves in the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands, which are far below the ionizing range. On the electromagnetic spectrum, radio waves make up the lower frequencies, visible light is in the middle, and X-rays and gamma rays make up the extremely high frequencies above ultraviolet light. Electromagnetic waves at or below the frequency of visible light are considered non-ionizing radiation because they don't have the ability break apart molecules into ions. Only electromagnetic waves higher in frequency than visible light (such as X-rays and gamma rays) have the ability to break ions off of molecules. The only known health effects from EM waves at or below visible light is the heating they may cause at sufficient power levels, like the way a 100W incandescent lightbulb gets hot, or the way you feel so-called "radiant heat" in front of a fire, which is actually just you being bathed by infrared light. Note that for your microwave oven to reheat your dinner, it has to bombard it with typically a kiloWatt (1,000,000 mW) or more, so 10,000x the power of a typical Wi-Fi AP.
I feel it's not exactly fair to call Wi-Fi's radio waves "radiation", because most people use that term to refer to nuclear radiation, like they way the decay of unstable radioactive isotopes releases alpha and beta particles and gamma rays. There is no nuclear radiation involved in Wi-Fi. It's just radio waves. If you don't think of the much higher frequency (400-790 TeraHertz) and intensity (100 W) electromagnetic waves radiating from your lightbulb to be irradiating you, then you shouldn't think of your radio devices as irradiating you either.
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Thank you! Great answer! So the Wi-Fi is 10x times less 'radiating' than a cell phone. Can you please explain what is the ionizing range? Only signals that creates ionization in the O or H can be called radiation ?– DragosJul 2, 2012 at 9:59
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You've gone beyond what the above-average joe knows about 'radiation'. The output from the wireless router isn't powerful enough to produce ionizing radiation... If you're worrying about the router causing cell damage, best to include TV broadcasts and AM/FM radio, since they're all in the same range of effects.– lornixJul 2, 2012 at 11:41
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I know this is old, but I'd suggest thinking of microwaves as well. Remember how they discovered a microwave could cook stuff: some researchers walked in front of a radar dish, and it cooked a chocolate bar in their pocket. Meaning, they probably did that walk dozens of times with no ill effect to themselves, yet had enough juice to zap a Hershey's. And your router has maybe a thousandth or much less of the power. Feb 5, 2015 at 15:12
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1Your answer is wrong. Hundreds of successful studies have proven that wireless electromagnetic radiation is toxic and harmful to humans. See www.stopsmartmeters.org and www.savelandlines.org for some sources. Try doing a simple search for "wireless radiation". 70% of Non-industry studies have proven that wireless radiation is harmful. Microwave ovens are faraday cages for good reason - the radiation is extremely harmful, and 2.4 GhZ is the same frequency used by WiFi. Smart meters, cordless phones and cell phones are just as bad. Aug 3, 2016 at 0:53