Sir William Stewart, chairman of the Health Protection Agency and a former government chief scientist, wants a formal investigation into the danger of using wi-fi - wireless computer and phone networks.

These networks emit radiation and are being put into classrooms across the country. Not only this, but whole cities are installing these networks, covering hundreds of square miles. In Norwich, more than 200 small aerials have been attached to lamp posts. Escape will be impossible.

Now, it seems, Brighton plans to launch a city-wide network next year (The Argus, March 29).

Campaigners have recently identified seven clusters of cancer and other serious illnesses around mobile phone masts.

Wi-fi systems take small versions of these masts into classrooms and homes. Researchers expect them to have ill effects on health.

Professor Salford of Lund University has demonstrated the electromagnetic radiation given off by this kind of technology kills off brain cells and there are concerns that children, with thinner skulls and developing nervous systems, are more vulnerable to it.

The Austrian Medical Association is lobbying against wi-fi in schools and Saltzburg has already advised schools not to install it.

So shouldn't we be asking Brighton and Hove City Council whether they should be installing wi-fi across our city before more safety research is carried out and we have a far better understanding of possible long-term effects?

Let us not forget that this Government neglected Sir William's precautionary advice on mobile phone masts - in thrall no doubt to commercial potential - and there appears to be strong evidence people have since developed cancers due to their proximity to mast radiation.

This represents a massive experiment on the public and the people of Brighton and Hove should not allow our council or commercial interests to do this to us.

Lobby your councillors and MPs for a full, official enquiry before the technology is deployed.

  • Michael Winter, Hillcrest, Brighton