[WEB4LIB] Re: More on Wireless Librarian

[Eric Hellman]

Well, you can also worry about carcinogens present in bindery glue, 
too, not to the mention the possibility of small children being 
choked by untidy 10-baseT cabling.

How many people are killed every year by collapsing bookcases?

Try reading some of the studies on this cell-phone stuff. The cancer 
rates are in the noise, swamped by real effects like cigarette 
smoking. Meta-studies find things, but don't consider the fact that 
medical journals won't publish a result that says that cell-phone use 
or whatever reduces the rate of cancer. The conclusion of the studies 
is always that a bigger, more expensive study is needed to confirm 
the results. Very often, the studies fail to find logical things like 
dose-response correlations.

I'm a bit biased, but Robert Park has a very nice book called "Voodoo 
Science" http://my.linkbaton.com/isbn/0195135156 in which he talks 
about the lousy science done addressing supposed cancers caused by 
power lines.

Eric

>Am I the only neo-Luddite in the bunch that is worried about the
>possible adverse health effects of the microwave radiation involved with
>wireless networking?
>
>Maybe the official story is that 'jury's still out' with regard to the
>risks from both wireless LANs and cell phones, but there's already
>enough evidence to give me pause.
>
>There's an article by Charles Moore discussing this issue.  It's
>available online at Macworld:
>http://macopinion.com/columns/roadwarrior/99/12/09/
>
>Here's a quote:
>"Apple's new AirPort networking system operates in the 2.4 GHz Frequency
>band at an output power of 15 dBm, while cellphones use the 800MHz to
>1.9 GHz band. The power output level of cellular phones can range from
>0.006 of a watt to 0.6 of a watt for handheld units and three to six
>watts for portable units. 2.4 GHz is even farther into microwave
>territory than the cellphone frequencies, and people will be exposed to
>emissions from wireless LANs for much longer periods of time than all
>but the most addicted cellphone users. Could the cumulative effect
>ultimately be as bad or worse? I'd like to know before I invest in
>wireless networking capability."
>
>Other info on health effects of non-ionizing radiation can be found at
>Microwave News:
>http://www.microwavenews.com
>
>I suspect this is one of those technologies where the health effects
>will not be known until after most of us have become the 'guinea pigs'.
>There's already plans for using wireless networking in one part of a new
>library addition being constructed on our campus.  I am not happy about
>this.  ("Do you need to talk to the librarian?  She's the one over there
>wearing the tinfoil hat...")
>
>--
>Stacy Pober
>Information Alchemist
>Manhattan College Libraries
>spober at manhattan.edu
>http://www.manhattan.edu/library/

Eric Hellman
Openly Informatics, Inc.
http://www.openly.com/           21st Century Information Infrastructure
LinkBaton: Your Links that Learn     http://my.linkbaton.com/