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Wifi Safety Information

In the Upper Grand District School Board, the health and safety of our students if our first priority. In implementing our BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) plan, significant research and health factors were taken into consideration before proceeding. Please refer to the links and information below for some highlights from relevant sources regarding WiFi Safety.

Health Canada and Safety Code 6

Safety Code 6 (revised in 2009) are exposure guidelines specified in a document entitled: Limits of Human Exposure to Radiofrequency Electromagnetic Energy in the Frequency Range from 3 kHz to 300 GHz. All UGDSB WiFi operates within that frequency band.

World Health Organization’s (WHO) position

WHO has not concluded that WiFi is a possible carcinogen.

WHO states that, “A large number of studies have been performed over the last two decades to assess whether mobile phones pose a potential health risk. To date, no adverse health effects have been established as being caused by mobile phone use.” More on the WHO’s position about electromagnetic fields and public health, visit their website.

Regarding the safety of WiFi, the WHO states: “Considering the very low exposure levels and research results collected to date, there is no convincing scientific evidence that the weak RF signals from base stations and wireless networks cause adverse health effects.” More on the WHO’s position on Wi-Fi and public health, visit their website.

Additional fact sheets and backgrounders can be found on the WHO website.

Precautionary Principle

The “Precautionary Principle” is defined as “The precautionary principle or precautionary approach states if an action or policy has a suspected risk of causing harm to the public or to the environment, in the absence of scientific consensus that the action or policy is harmful, the burden of proof that it is not harmful falls on those taking an act.” Health Canada’s position is that no precautionary measures are needed. WiFi exposure levels are typically well below Canadian and international exposure limits, and there is no convincing evidence that they are a health hazard.