Wi-Fi router may endanger human health
Last reviewed: 16.10.2021
All iLive content is medically reviewed or fact checked to ensure as much factual accuracy as possible.
We have strict sourcing guidelines and only link to reputable media sites, academic research institutions and, whenever possible, medically peer reviewed studies. Note that the numbers in parentheses ([1], [2], etc.) are clickable links to these studies.
If you feel that any of our content is inaccurate, out-of-date, or otherwise questionable, please select it and press Ctrl + Enter.
Today, the vast majority of people do not represent their lives without the Internet. As a rule, in many houses and apartments there are special routers, or Wi-Fi-routers that distribute access to the Internet. However, scientists are alarming: such a "distributor" may pose a threat to human health - at least six variants of the router's negative effect are already known.
- Wi-Fi negatively affects the DNA of the testicles. In 2016, the journal Chemical Neuroanatomy published information about a study in which scientists studied the effect of radio frequency radiation from a router on the rodent organism. It was found that the radiation had relatively no effect on other organs, except the testes. As it turned out, the testes have an increased sensitivity to radio-frequency waves.
- Wi-Fi increases oxidative stress in the body. In the same year of 2016 the same journal also published another conclusion of scientists: the long-term effect of electromagnetic waves from the router increases the content of reactive oxygen-containing substances and lowers the antioxidant protection of the human body. As a result, oxidative lesions of the brain and liver structures develop over time.
- Wi-Fi causes intrauterine malformations of kidney development in a future child. In 2004, the publication of Bioelectromagnetics published the results of a study according to which Wi-Fi waves led to a delay in the formation of renal organs in newborn rodents.
- Wi-Fi impairs the motor activity of spermatozoa. Fertility and Sterility magazine published five years ago information that waves from a router adversely affect the motor activity of spermatozoa. These conclusions were made by scientists after a survey of sperm samples taken from nine healthy male subjects.
- Wi-Fi leads to insomnia. Many people write off sleep disorders for domestic or work stressful situations. But scientists say: the whole fault is a Wi-Fi router. In 2013, experts found that wave radiation had an adverse effect on the brain structures of sleeping rodents. For example, such waves caused an upset of the natural phases of sleep. After the results of the study, physicians began to advise Internet users to turn off the router for the night.
- Wi-Fi can cause malignant cell degeneration. This is the most controversial statement, since research on this issue was conducted almost 40 years ago - and in fact during this time much has changed, including in the technical plan. Nevertheless, then scientists were seriously concerned with this fact: people who died of malignant tumors lived in places through which powerful electromagnetic fields passed.
However, after reading these lines, do not immediately throw your Wi-Fi source into the garbage bin. To date, the experts have finally made sure: the router is not capable of causing harm, since the power of the emitted radio waves from it is six hundred times less than the permissible and nonhazardous for human health norms. It is this information that the British Health Protection Agency has distributed on its website.