World Wide-Fifi-Free Day (08/11)

As if mirroring each other, two holidays coexist: International Wi-Fi Day, celebrated on June 20, and World Day Without Wifi, born in 2016, the date of which is set for November 8.

Many technologies that have become firmly established in people's daily lives raise many concerns related to the impact of progressive trends on human health and the world around them. This is precisely the reason for the coexistence of two dates dedicated to the same technology, which has become a human companion and continues to spread throughout the world. One holiday highlights the undeniable advantages and benefits of introducing Wi-Fi technology into human life. Another calls for more attention to the relatively new technology, pointing out that it can also have a negative impact on people's health, since it remains understudied.

The technology of wireless Internet connection and wireless data transmission was developed back in the 1990s by Australian scientists from the State Association of Scientific and Applied Research, and engineers from Nokia and Aironet successfully implemented and developed this technology, called Wi-Fi. Subsequently, this name began to denote a whole family of standards for data transmission over radio channels. This technology has become widespread not only among users, but also in a number of industries.

In 2016, the Venezuela-registered International Federation of Environmentalists called for the establishment and celebration of World Wi-Fi Free Day on November 8 every year. The organizers and initiators of the new holiday set as their goal to draw public attention to the fact that the influence of radio channels and radio waves on people's health has not been sufficiently studied. If they are exposed to excessive constant exposure when using Wi-Fi technology in every house and apartment, there remains a risk of their negative impact on human health.

Although WHO has confirmed that there is no such negative impact on the radio frequency band used, opponents of the spread of wireless Internet access technology are calling for priority to be given to cable connections that have so far been better studied in terms of health impacts.



Postcard November «8 — World Day without Wi-Fi»

2014