Lakehead University, a small Canadian college, halted its campus-wide wireless Internet plans after President Fred Gilbert ruled wireless technology a potential carcinogen, according to a Feb. 23 Reuters article. But two professors at Penn State disagree.

The president of the Canadian school said electromagnetic forces transmitted by the wireless antennas posed a potential harm students' health and "the jury is still out on the impact that electromagnetic forces have on human physiology," according to the article.

"I find it hard to believe," said William Burkhard, director of electronics and computer services in the College of Engineering. "I think it's an overreaction."

He said this debate has been a common subject over the years.

"There's been no concrete studies I've seen," he said.

Burkhard said wireless fidelity, WiFi, systems transmit and receive the Internet through radio waves, as opposed to transmitting them through a cable plugged into a wall.

"It's just a radio that does transmitting and receiving," Burkhard said.

At Penn State, there are 66 wireless networks, including ones in the HUB-Robeson Center, Old Main and Pattee and Paterno libraries, according to the Telecommunications and Networking Services Web site, www4.tns.its.psu.edu.

"It is nothing out of the ordinary that you haven't been exposed to," Burkhard said. "I think you've got more danger with a cell phone."

He added that the cellular antenna is pressed right against the operator's head.

Burkhard said the maximum power output from a typical WiFi unit is regulated to 0.8 watts. For cell phones, he said, the federal limit is five watts, almost five times the power.

Although cell phones and wireless Internet are not directly comparable, they do work off the same technology, said Joshua Muscat, associate professor of health evaluation services, allowing one to be related to the other.

"Both have been found not to relate to cancer," he added. "For the most part, that data seems to be pretty conclusive."

Muscat said fears of health risks often accompany new technologies. Concerns can be raised because there have not been any specific, long-term studies on the effects of WiFi.

"Because we haven't done specific research of WiFi, you can always raise that issue," he said.

But Muscat added that there is no reason to believe WiFi will pose a unique risk, because humans are immersed in electromagnetic waves from other technologies.

"We live in an ocean of radio frequency signals," he said. "It's just the environment we live in."