The latest "cancer risk" to frighten the Daily Mail and its readers is Wi-Fi internet networks at schools.
Like many papers today, the Mail reports an investigation for the BBC's Panorama programme that found classroom wireless connections give off three times as much radiation as mobile phone masts. Such networks are used in half of primary schools and 70% of secondary schools, the Mail says. The chairman of the Health Protection Agency, Sir William Stewart, is so concerned that he has called for an inquiry.
The Daily Telegraph, which splashes with the story, reminds us that a report by Sir William recommended that mobile phone masts should not be sited near schools without consultation with parents and teachers.
"I believe there is a need for a review of the Wi-Fi and other areas," he says, "I think it is timely for it to be done now."
But the Guardian talks to scientists, who say it is a "scare story". Paddy Regan, a physicist at the University of Surrey, criticised the radiation experiment conducted by Panorama. It turns out that the "three times higher" radiation claim was based on a measurement taken one metre away from a school laptop, but 100 metres away from a
mobile phone mast.
The Guardian says this was not made clear by those promoting tonight's show. It also points out that the levels of radiation measured by the programme were 600 times lower than levels considered dangerous by the government.
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