The idea sounds great. It would be a big leap forward for Penang state government to bring public awareness to the use of technology on a day to day basis. Unfortunately, lately there has been a lot of criticism to this technology possible side effects.
Present official stands in other countries on the same issue: Many advanced countries have adopted a precautionary approach to the use of wireless technology. The Swiss government issued a health alert on electrosmog in 2005.
Germany, Austria and Belgium have all advised schools against installing Wi-Fi networks. In France, five public libraries shut down their Wi-Fi over health concerns. Last year, the German government warned its citizens to avoid using Wi-Fi.
Latest world developments on the matter: Concern over Wi-Fi has been recently raised in the European Parliament. In August 2007, the Bioinitiative Report, endorsed by 14 world experts – the latest scientific opinion on electromagnetic fields (EMFs) – warned that "corrections are needed in the way we accept, test and deploy" wireless technologies "in order to avert public health problems of a global nature".
Countries like South Korea has Wi-fi for nearly all their major cities. Nearly half of UK primary schools and more than 70% of secondary schools are fitted with Wi-Fi networks.
But The World Health Organisation says there are "no adverse health effects from low-level, long-term exposure". Scientists generally believe that Wi-Fi ought to be safer than mobile phone radiation because Wi-Fi devices transmit over shorter distances and so can operate at lower power. The Health Protection Agency says a person sitting within a Wi-Fi hot spot for a year receives the same dose of radio waves as a person using a mobile phone for 20 minutes.
What i would recommend is that all public transport places, libraries and hardcore city areas to have wi-fi for the time being. Have a 3 year expansion plan. So people who wishes not to be in this hotspot can migrate. Wi-fi unfortunately is a technology that cannot be ignored. As fast as the technology of hand phones and computer grow the the use of Wi-fi grows. For instance while i was travelling in Switzerland, I was looking for a place to stay while i was travelling on a train. Since i had a day travel pass, my destination didn't matter. All the train station in Switzerland has free wi-fi. So Everytime the train pulled into a station, I quickly pulled out my laptop and searched for all the hostels and hotels in the next town. Then from my present town to the next town i would call this places to see if there were any vacancy. By the time i reach there i could decide if i needed to get down at that station or not. If they weren't any vacancy then i would do the same for the next town.
Technology is there for us to use. But the responsible thing to do for the state government is to finance their own state university, University Sains Malaysia to carry out a research on this. It would be responsible for a government to have such an approach. What the Pakatan Rakyat Government in Penang does would show a good example to the other states governments to follow. Whatever done with responsibility and precautions is sure to reduce of going wrong.
Pathmanck
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