I refer to the letter Transform Penang but not at public health expense .

While I am all for being open to fresh evidence and findings on the dangers of electromagnetic radiation on people, the first question which crossed my mind upon reading the above letter is why only Penang?

Why not also object to the Wireless@KL public broadband initiative in Kuala Lumpur? Why not also Wi-Fi hotspots in the thousands of cafes nationwide? Why not also the thousands of Wi-Fi access points in offices and public places nationwide? Why not also the Wi-Fi access points in the hundreds of thousands of homes nationwide? Why not in-built Wi-Fi chips in the thousands of notebook PCs?

Also, since Wi-Fi employs electromagnetic waves, just like mobile phones, Wi-Max, microwaves, radio, TV and others, why does CAP not object to all of these as well?

Well, that leads me to suspect that CAP’s selective objection of the proposed public Wi-Fi project by Penang's Pakatan Rakyat government is politically motivated despite their claim that the Consumers Association of Penang is non-partisan.

Also, in their letter, they mention evidence of the dangers of electromagnetic waves causing cancer but do not elaborate, suggesting that this evidence is inconclusive and still weak.

Electromagnetic waves with frequencies ranging from zero up to just below infra-red are non-ionising – ie. they do not cause electrons to break free from their atoms thus creating positively and negatively charged particles, unlike electromagnetic waves above ultra violet, such as X-rays and gamma rays, which do and are hence pose a danger.

Radio waves with frequencies ranging from those used for AM radios up to microwave frequencies just below infra-red generate heat in the substances they penetrate, such as human flesh, by exciting the electrons in atoms and molecules to jump to higher energy levels, while still remaining bound to their atoms or molecules.

So far, there's no known conclusive evidence that non-ionising radiation is carcinogenic (cancer causing), while all reports at the same time say that the radiation from phones causes slight heating in the flesh and bones of the user but that the heat generated in the local area is removed by the blood flow.

The radiation from mobile phones has been demonstrated to pop corn kernels in videos posted on You Tube and that's certainly not faked. However, spectacular as that may appear, it still does not prove conclusively that mobile phones are dangerous to human health.

What happens is exactly the same as what happens in a microwave oven except that the power of the radiation from mobile phones is very much weaker than that within the enclosed cooking cavity of a microwave oven.

Mobile phones in Malaysia and in much of Asia and Europe use frequencies in the 900MHz (megahertz), 1,800MHz and 2,100MHz bands, while Wi-Max operates at 2,300MHz (2.3GHz) in Malaysia and South Korea.

Wi-Fi works at 2,400MHz (2.4GHz) and microwave ovens at 2,450 MHz (2.45 GHz), all of which are non-ionising frequencies but which cause heating in some substances or materials they encounter - especially if they contain moisture – and yes, if the radiation from Wi-Fi, mobile phones, etc is powerful enough, it could well ‘cook’ our hands and brains as well, just as a microwave oven cooks food.

The peak power radiated from a GSM phone is estimated to be two watts, while a typical consumer microwave oven radiates 700 watts of microwave power, which is a very big difference in degrees.

Let's digress a bit at this point and ask whether the non-prescription analgesic drug paracetamol – sold commercially under the trade names Panadol, Tylenol, Anacin-3 and so on – is dangerous to human health.

When taken in its prescribed dosage, paracetamol provides a few hours relief from the discomfort of a headache, body ache or a high fever but if taken in sufficient excess, paracetamol is potentially fatal and has reportedly been used in suicides. It's the same with non-ionising electromagnetic radiation.

So while mobile phone and Wi-Fi device manufacturers as well as industry regulators must ensure that radiation from their devices is kept within safe limits, it does not mean we should throw the proverbial baby out with the bath water unless there is sufficiently strong evidence to justify doing so.

All these communication devices and modern conveniences have made our lives easier when used properly. While I'd love to switch off my mobile phone at times to avoid being unnecessarily disturbed, I can't in case an elderly relation needs help in an emergency. So I still need my phone and I believe so do many others.

So bodies like the Consumers Association of Penang should work to educate and inform consumers on how to make use of these conveniences in ways which won't harm them rather than expecting all of us to revert to lives of ascetics.

Admittedly, a huge degree of consumerism has been built up around PCs, gadgets and mobile phones to drive consumer spending and profits of the manufacturers up and up.

New models with minor incremental improvements and styling are launched every few months, causing young people especially with money to change their phones, gadgets or PC motherboards every few months. At the same time this has resulted in advertisers’ dream - ie, an insidious culture of peer-pressure especially within youths who're still searching for themselves and ever yearning for acceptance of and acknowledgment by their peers.

They are thus susceptible to peer-pressure to keep on buying the latest phone, gadget, PC or PC-motherboard to keep up with the proverbial Joneses, while the capitalist manufacturers laugh all the way to the bank.

While youth with rich and doting parents can have a new phone, gadget or PC every few months, this insidious peer-pressure also drives those with less financial means to want to keep up with the Joneses or feel left behind and this is what bodies such as the Consumers Association of Penang should be fighting against.

Anyway, we are now witnessing the whole finance, credit and consumer spending kaboodle go down in flames like a lead zeppelin on Wall Street and I mean a lead zeppelin and not the band Led Zeppelin.