Electrosensitivity: WLAN remains switched off at night in Wangen

A few residents of the tranquil town of Wangen apparently have physical complaints due to the public WLAN hotspot. To address the electrosensitivity of those affected, the town is now turning off its WLAN overnight. And apparently the next town is already planning a very similar approach.

WLAN remains switched off in Wangen overnight

With its picturesque old town and many restored centuries-old buildings, the town of Wangen, which has a population of 27,000, is one of the tourist magnets in Baden-Württemberg. So it’s no surprise that various Wi-Fi hotspots are available for day-trippers and vacationers, especially in the city center. But that is now a thing of the past. The city in Upper Swabia has responded to a demand from the “Bündnis Verantwortungsvoller Mobilfunk Deutschland” (Alliance for Responsible Mobile Communications in Germany) and has now switched off the public WLAN network overnight. Between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m., people have to do without the freely accessible wireless Internet. Behind it is the electrosensitivity of the people living in Wangen, as a spokesman of the city administration expressed to the colleagues of heise online to the expression.

However, the shutdown is not to affect the entire city. Rather, only the city center would be affected. It is important to the Wangen administration to emphasize that, for example, other municipal facilities such as the local refugee home continue to have a WLAN network around the clock. After all, the aim is by no means to prevent residents from contacting their relatives back home. Furthermore, the city emphasizes that the use of the WLAN hotspot was marginal at the now decided blocking times anyway. Consequently, the temporary shutdown is likely to be beneficial not only for the physically affected persons. On top of that, the city should save a lot of electricity costs here.

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Ravensburg also wants to consider electrosensitivity

The approach of Wangen has apparently got around in the region. So now probably also the barely 30 km distant city of Ravensburg plans a very similar approach. Here, too, it is possible that the WLAN will be switched off overnight. The symptoms of electrosensitivity sufferers are also considered to be the cause in Ravensburg. So do we now have to prepare for such measures nationwide? One must doubt this. After all, a court decision would presumably assign more weight to access to public WLAN.

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This can be inferred from a statement of the Federal Office for Radiation Protection (BfS) to heise online. The experts speak here of the fact that “the field strengths of electromagnetic fields from WLAN routers […] usually remain well below the recommended limits”. Health effects are therefore ruled out in the view of the BfS. Furthermore, the experts for radiation protection emphasized that one’s own smartphone usually emits significantly more radiation than a WLAN router does. If you would like to take a closer look at this topic, you can check out the hints on the official website of the BfS.