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Parents sue over school Wi-Fi use

OAK PARK, Ill., Nov. 11 (UPI) -- Parents are suing their daughters' suburban Chicago school district because they feel they should have a choice to not expose them to Wi-Fi signals.

Wi-Fi is a radio frequency that allows computers to be used without being tethered to a wire to gain Internet access.

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One of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, Ron Baiman, is suing the Oak Park Elementary School District 97 because he says the school board has ignored his and other parents' questions over long-term health effects of wireless technology, Tech TV reports.

"I found that there was a major scientific controversy with credible experts," Baiman says, "and that there was considerable uncertainty about what the long-term effects of this kind of non-ionizing radiation could be, particularly on young children."

The Food and Drug Administration at its Web site fda.gov/cellphones explains the specific absorption rate -- how much exposure humans can safely bear -- deemed safe for devices operating at frequencies from 300 KHz to 100 GHz.

Tech TV said determining the absorption rate for each device is not easy, but the FDA says the rates for 2.4-GHz and 5-GHz Wi-Fi hubs are within the acceptable safety range.

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