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TORONTO (Reuters) – A small Canadian university has ruled out campus-wide wireless Internet access because its president fears the system’s electromagnetic forces could pose a risk to students’ health.

Lakehead University, in Thunder Bay, Ontario, has only a limited Wi-Fi connections at present, in places where there is no fiber-optic Internet connection. And that, according to president Fred Gilbert, is just fine.

“The jury is still out on the impact that electromagnetic forces have on human physiology,” Gilbert told a university meeting last month, insisting that university policy would not change while he remained president.

“Some studies have indicated that there are links to carcinogenetic occurrences in animals, including humans, that are related to energy fields associated with wireless hotspots, whether those hotspots are transmissions lines, whether they’re outlets, plasma screens, or microwave ovens that leak.”

Lakehead University published a transcript of Gilbert’s remarks on its Web site. Spokeswoman Eleanor Abaya said the decision not to expand the university’s few isolated wireless networks was a “personal decision” by Gilbert.

But the president’s stance has prompted a backlash from students and from Canadian health authorities, who say his fears are overdone.

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