Should Wi-Fi be outlawed in schools?
Could the use of wireless equipment in schools be making our children sick?
Wi-Fi in schools is very dangerous for children. At least, that is what’s claimed in a news release recently pushed out by the Simcoe County Safe School Committee:
American Public Health Researcher Susan Clarke says parents of children in Ontario schools should not accept microwave transmitters for WiFi in classrooms because it can make their children feel sick.
“The symptoms, including headaches, dizziness, insomnia, and even erratic speeding heart rates are already documented in fourteen schools throughout Simcoe County since they installed them,” said Clarke, who has worked at the Harvard School of Public Health and has lectured on emerging Public Health problems for two decades.
The Safe School Committee website includes a list of comments made by both parents and kids. The comments include:
- “My son goes to Birchview Dunes in Wasaga Beach has a racing heart to the point where he’s been passing out and even hit his head when he fell. This only ever happens in school, and it happens alot. Since school let out he has not had any problems with this and he’s running and playing all summer just like the other kids.”
- “I go to high school in Elmvale. In school I get severe headaches, nausea, I’m dizzy, I have also noticed mild memory loss. I occasionally lose vision in my one eye and I also lose feeling in my left hand. Just a few days after school ended the headaches stopped and I’ve been fine.”
- “Since school let out my daughter has no more headaches. She needed Tylenol 4 days a week after school but has been fine every day this summer. She always looked pale after school but she’s also fine every day and has no symptoms at all. The strangest thing was that her eyebrows went almost white in a matter of days during the school year when her headaches and dizziness were at their worst. I am a Registered Nurse and I could not figure out why this was happening. However within a week into the summer holiday her eyebrow colour returned to her natural brown. It was very weird and actually scared my daughter. God only knows what other damage is being done that we can’t see.”
The debate about the health risks associated with wireless equipment is certainly not a new one and Wikipedia actually has a page devoted to the subject: Wireless electronic devices and health. How concerned should you be about the health risks? Are they real or imagined? Should you send your kids to school in a tinfoil hat or maybe even switch them to a school that doesn’t use wireless internet connections? Or is it all rubbish? I can’t answer any of those questions. What I can tell you is that the most of the accepted evidence points to wireless equipment being safe – see the Wikipedia page for details. On the other hand, there are also a considerable number of contrary opinions some of which are listed on the Safe School Committee website. What is certain is that our kids are being exposed to more sources of electromagnetic fields than ever before – cell and cordless phones, cell phone base stations, wireless routers, printers and video game controllers, etc., etc. – and that these devices haven’t been around for long enough for their effects to be known for sure.
What’s your take? Should wireless equipment be used in schools? And should we also be concerned about the use of other wireless devices in – and out of – our homes? Leave a comment and share your thoughts.
The dispute is meaningless. The problem is real but it isn’t the WiFi. Video and pictures on-line showing typical student computer use in these schools demonstrates the problem is actually Subliminal Distraction exposure.
SD is named for the normal feature of human physiology that allows it to happen. It was discovered when it caused mental breaks for office workers using the first prototypes of modern close-spaced workstations. The cubicle was designed to deal with the vision startle reflex to stop it there by 1968.
Normally this happens to one person in an incorrectly deigned office. An outbreak like this one in Ontario schools is very unusual.
If they turned off the WiFi it might continue or get worse.
A complete cubicle is not necessary but there should be a peripheral vision blocking privacy shield on both sides of a student using a computer in a crowded situation.
I wonder if cell phone towers could be causing the same thing? Lets shut off all the mobile towers:)
[...] But despite the benefits, it’s inevitable that some people would not feel at all comfortable about RFID being used in schools. It is an invasive technology that has the potential to be misused and some students and teachers would undoubtedly be extremely uneasy about Big Brother having the ability to track their movements – especially if the technology were to be used beyond the school gates. Further, there are also some people who would be concerned about the possible health effects of wireless devices. [...]
Ok…before anyone posts more about this, they really need to do some research on EMF, its dangers and what our goverment (and other countries) have stated regarding health risks surrounding EMF, WiFi and Cellular emmissions. EMF is real. There has been plenty of studies (I can list the sources if needed) documenting EMF and its compromising of the immune systems and additional celluar disruption (including at the DNA level). It is true that EMF cannot be eliminated. However, it is documented what has been considered to be a safe level of constant exposure (In the home and workplace). 1mg has now been determined to be an acceptable maximum level of consistant exposure to prevent or reduce potential health risk. Unfortunetly the US allows for .5 – 6mg as acceptable, with no regulation of this level. Both the EPA and FDA have stated that TO DATE there is not significant research or data to point EMF to any specific disease or health condition. If you want to follow the FDA’s process for how they determine “safe”, “unsafe” etc; then you must also believe that supplements provide no health benefit to current health, slowing the aging process, longevity and the like. The FDA has not supported supplement use nor do they regulate supplement manufacturers for the same season they do not suppport EMF health risks; they claim there is no significant data or research to support it AT THIS TIME. I work if high position for a major Surgical Device Manufacturer (I know a little about the FDA). We (the public) tend to forget (or do not realize) that the FDA, EPA, Capital Hill, etc. are a BUSINESS. This is not conspiracy theory, its FACT. For the most part the corporation we live in (The United States) serves us well. We have great medical technology, freedom of speach, tremendous finacial opportunity, as safe enviroment (little terrorist daily threat), and the list goes on. But in business is takes money to make money and Washington is a very profitable place to make money. To that, history has shown that the FDA and Washington routinely states that product XYZ or condition XYZ poses no current significant positive or negative situation and 10-20 years later simply states that XYZ was actually bad or good, but there was not “significant data or research” available prior. In addition, the FDA focuses where the money is spent and unfortunatley, this means that very powerful lobbyists, keep them focused where the money is. (This is why supplements get jilted right now and so does EMF and the beat goes on). SO; if people are spending a one time $2-400 on something that can protect them from EMF or helps them feel better then what is the harm. In addition, Earthcalm offers an unconditional 90 Day Money Back guarantee. If you use it and it appears to be bunk, then just return it. If it were me, I would prefer to be the house 10-20 years from now that has been using an EMF and WiFi limiter when the FDA announces that they have enough research to state that is really dangerous. If you wait for the goverment or someone else to tell you whats safe, then it will probably be too late. For crying out loud look how long it took the FDA and EPA to come out about tobacco? Did we (the human race) really need to wait for the goverment to tell us that sucking smoke in to our lungs for pleasure was bad?? The amount of technology producing increased levels of EMF has quadrupled since the 1990′s. As recently as 2000, very few homes had DSL nevermind WiFi. Is 5-7 years enough time in a saturated EMF enviroment enough time for us to know the long term effects?? Do what you like, but if there is anything to it, what harm can it cause (and what if they are right?). Not trying to make a statement, just asking questions and asking people to think outside the box and stop WAITING for someone to tell you if its safe or not…do soem research and decide for yourself…
if by doing research you mean finding existing information – it’s possible. but that’s if exhaustive health tests have already been done. the public cannot do the test themselves. and if tests have already been done, shouldn’t it be at least made much easier where to find all that information rather than discussing it on these blogs like stupid idiot fools :).
“1 foot distance a wifi router gives off .5 mG a florescent bulb used in schools at for 50 years gives off 2 mG.”
Why don’t you stick your hand in a microwave oven and say its safe or it’s the same as a “florescent bulb”. The problem is with the frequency being used, not the power output.We keep moving into higher and higher frequency’s because of the massive number of cell phones out there. If your microwave oven frequency is bad, then 1 megahertz less is ok.”that just doesn’t make any sense” Even the old cell phones used is 1980s were better for you, and there were studies, done on that.
In time this will all be fixed when Internet 2 comes out. They are going to use the old TV broadcast frequency’s. They travel much further and are safer as they are in the lower bands. Oh ya…and the company’s that make the wiffi and now the new Wiffi2, will all change their tunes, and tell you its safer with studies to prove it.
i think many of these doubts persist because of ignorance. and ignorance is there because of carelessness of our lifestyle system.governance. any new technology, especially if using any sort of new kind of airwaves should go an extensive exhaustive list of years of health tests besides other obvious technological tests which the commercial companies will obviously be doing. any new kind of airwaves which are inended for human exposure need o be tested by a non-commercial interest research group. and finally, before being put out to market, it has to get approval of the public by advertising on radio, tv, other media etc. i;m not aware that any oor al of these things happen currently. those people who claim that they haven’t seen any adverse efects till now – well….do you expect something like a hiroshima or something!! have you ever wondered how incredibly advanced and sensitive nature is and the reproductive system. when science is able to explain everything, then will be the day when you see more atheists and less religious people :). don’t see that happening anytime before earth is killed off by us or even otherwise.
You may be correct in that these blog post serve little purpose. But they continue because the symptoms of those Ontario elementary students cannot be faked.Something is causing them. It can be shown that Wi-Fi EMR does not produce this result anywhere else. So what is it?
I previously posted that answer on this thread but no one seems to notice.
There is a simple problem of human physiology discovered and solved forty years ago that will cause these symptoms. I have written the Canadian Minister of Health but so far they have not bothered to verify what I told them.
As the students advance in school the outcomes from Subliminal Distraction exposure will become more serious with added daily exposure times. There were three Canadian engineering students who vanished. One was found in Texas but the other two have not appeared in Google Alerts I maintain for them. Other cases involve sudden unexplained suicides.
The cubicle was designed to deal with the vision startle reflex to stop what is still, to this day, believed to be a harmless temporary episode of confusion in offices.
In China there have been 13 suicides of assembly line workers since January. In France 26 France Telecom workers have committed suicide in the last two years. Video available on-line show both cases involve Subliminal Distraction exposure.
It’s only a matter of time until one of these students manages to put together enough at-risk activities and have exposure for the full mental break instead of the light symptoms they now have.
[...] At the moment there are conflicting opinions regarding the safety of using Wi-Fi systems in schools. Those against argue Wi-Fis in classrooms can make children sick. Symptoms might include headaches, dizziness, and erratic speeding heart rates. Children are seen as being more vulnerable because their skulls are thinner and smaller thus making exposure easier to these waves. So should WiFi be outlawed in schools? [...]
[...] year, I wrote a blog post that looked at whether Wi-Fi should be outlawed in schools. Many people are concerned that the use of wireless equipment in schools is making children sick. [...]