By Graeme Paton, Education Correspondent
Last Updated: 2:16am BST 02/08/2007

Wireless internet use in schools should be suspended amid fears million of children may be exposed to a risk of cancer, teachers have said.
  
Sir William Stewart today urgently calls for a review of potential health risks linked to wireless internet networks in schools
Around 70 per cent of primary schools and 81 per cent of secondaries already have wireless technology

Until it can be proved the technology is safe, pupils are being used as "guinea pigs in a large-scale experiment", according to the Professional Association of Teachers (PAT).

The comments follow claims – disputed by officials - that "wi-fi" networks give off three times as much radiation as a typical mobile phone mast.

Official guidance already recommends a "precautionary" approach to building masts near schools, saying parents must be notified first. Now teachers say the same rules should be extended to wi-fi use in the classroom.

Philip Parkin, PAT general secretary, said: "A full scientific inquiry should be commissioned in order to better understand the issues.

"Schools should be discouraged from installing further networks until the results of such an inquiry are known. My real concern is that until there is a full inquiry based on both existing evidence and on newly-commissioned research work, the nation's children are being treated as guinea pigs in a large-scale experiment."

Wi-fi works by transmitting information via radio waves from a telephone line to a computer and back.

Becta, the Government's education technology agency, says it does not actively promote use of the technology but insists it can "complement" a school's wired network.

A spokesman said 70 per cent of primary schools and 81 per cent of secondaries already have wireless technology – almost 14,500 in England alone. Whole towns have even embraced the wireless revolution, with Norwich already a "wi-fi city" and Brighton set to follow.

In the last 18 months, 1.6 million networks have been connected, the large majority in households.

Current guidance from the Health Protection Agency suggests there is "no consistent evidence of health effects" from wi-fi equipment.

But its chairman, Sir William Stewart, broke ranks earlier this year by saying there should be a review of the health effects amid fears they could pose a greater danger than mobile phone masts.

Mr Parkin said he was not certain there were health dangers linked to wireless technology but insisted schools should not take any risks.

"I have heard and read enough to make me concerned," he said. New guidance distributed by the PAT to teachers says that levels of radiation should be measured in all schools with wi-fi.

Doubt surrounding the technology has already prompted some local authorities to impose a ban.

Haringey council, north London, ruled that no new wi-fi systems be installed and that existing ones should be discontinued pending "full consultation with parents and staff".

But Kevin Brennan, junior children's minister, said there was no need to amend current guidance.