School Bans Wi-Fi Over Heatlh Concerns

[Andy Chalk]

School Bans Wi-Fi Over Heatlh Concerns

An Ontario elementary school has become the first in Canada to ban Wi-Fi because of health concerns after students complained of feeling sick after the wireless system was installed.

Wi-Fi is a very common, widely available wireless networking technology but one place you won't find it is St. Vincent Euphrasia elementary school in Meaford, Ontario. Parents voted to remove and ban Wi-Fi transmitters from the school because of the risk they pose to students, some of whom fell ill not long after they were installed.

"After learning the whole story about how risky Wi-Fi is, parents voted to protect their children's health and plug the computers back in with hardwires," said school council member Andrew Couper. "This is something every school council across Canada should be questioning."

Couper's breathless concern over "the whole story" notwithstanding, extensive research conducted by the World Health Organization's Health Protection Agency [http://www.who.int/peh-emf/project/en/], meanwhile, states, "There is no consistent evidence to date that Wi-Fi and WLANs adversely affect the health of the general population," and that it "sees no reason why Wi-Fi should not continue to be used in schools."

Health Canada [http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/index-eng.php] also addressed the matter with a statement saying, "Wi-Fi is the second most prevalent form of wireless technology next to cell phones. It is widely used across Canada in schools, offices, coffee shops, personal dwellings, as well as countless other locations. Health Canada continues to reassure Canadians that the radiofrequency energy emitted from Wi-Fi equipment is extremely low and is not associated with any health problems."

Nonetheless, parents are worried and their concerns are bolstered by a number of high-placed, vocal Wi-Fi critics. Susan Clarke, a former research consultant to the NDP [http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/] Health Critic France Gelinas added, "Within a few months of Wi-Fi being installed, stories start coming forward with kids complaining about headaches, neurological effects, loss of balance and problems with fine motor skills. There is enough anecdotal evidence from parents that this is worth looking into."

Sources: CBC [http://www.ottawasun.com/life/healthandfitness/2010/10/18/15729421.html]


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[Booze Zombie]

Not a fan of wireless, myself.
Just using a mobile makes my head feel weird.

There's something more than people imagining things going on with the microwaves being emmited from wireless devices, if you were to ask me, anyway.

 

[Tim Latshaw]

You know another way kids get sick at school? By being stuffed in rooms full of their germ-infested classmates. I hope that was considered, too.

 

[Armored Prayer]

Or maybe it was food poisoning, or a student has a very contagious sickness.

You know, look into everything instead of just labeling all on one culprit.

 

[Baby Tea]

This is in the listening area of the radio station I work at.
We've been running this story on our news cast, and I think it's ridiculous.
Seems more like sensationalism then a genuine health problem.

 

[Woodsey]

Clearly they put in a lot of scientific study in this.

"Hey guys this is just a coinci-"

"WON'T SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN?!"

 

[XT inc]

Eh I prefer Hardline ethernet anyway. I Just have had so many horrendous experiences with wireless devices it is no biggy to me the fact that more and more full sized devices going wireless is an added annoyance.

In reality though I highly doubt wireless had anything to do with kids sickness, they would have been sick long before it was put in.

 

[Desworks]

They use microwaves to broadcast, the same as every wireless communication device on the planet. Is the school also planning on getting rid of all it's AM/FM radios?

 

[Sneaky-Pie]

All I know is that I've been steadily getting dumber after being on the internet... wirelessly.

Actually, I'm pretty sure it's just the internet.

 

[Legion]

Anyone else think it was because kids were playing on mobiles with internet access rather than working or something along those lines?

 

[tahrey]

The f**k. They're ELEMENTARY SCHOOL KIDS. If a third the class isn't ill with something, then you've probably got a few pod people infiltrating your area.

Til someone gets a good, fully independent/non biased, double blind, large sample-space and otherwise scientifically and statistically valid study on the go - and it finds that sub-1-watt, non-focussed levels of non ionising radiation at a frequency also emitted by the sun, or at much higher levels by kitchen equipment, somehow causes a measurable detriment to human health - I'm calling horseshit on the very idea.

It's the whole thing that people hear "radiation" and think automatically think "hiroshima, chernobyl" again, then start looking for the slightest pattern of unusual activity around them. Never mind that they'll happily sit out for hours under the planet's largest vaguely-local source of nuclear radiation whilst on vacation. And don't seem (any longer) to have much issue with the very similar radiation required to e.g. run the teacher's cellphone, beam in the educational TV and radio programmes that they may show to the children at some point in the day, allow GPS to work etc. I wonder even if they're maybe close to some power lines, or an air traffic control radar? Either of those -should- have a bigger effect, even allowing for inverse square law and the like.

Wi-fi is the boogeyman of the moment, and we'll see this whole palaver disappear quietly into the dust when the next big bad phantom rolls along. The emissions from a typical 802.11 AP are the radiological equivalent of a mouse fart... in a hurricane. Take 'em on a tour of a radiology, or better yet radiotherapy deparment and let them see some serious (and beneficial - if properly handled) radiation at work. Then tell them that being in the beam does damage equivalent to being stabbed with all the wifi points in their county at the same time. Will they get the hospital shut down because of the danger of that leaking out and hurting the children?

/ex nuclear medicine technician and current IT tech in a department that can't actually get hold of APs powerful enough to penetrate a useful distance through our steel-reinforced concrete structures.


EDIT - oh, and what if they have PCs with CPUs operating at 2.4Ghz, and poorly shielded casings?

 

[CitySquirrel]

You know another way kids get sick at school? By being stuffed in rooms full of their germ-infested classmates. I hope that was considered, too.

And florescent lights.

 

[Ki11erHyde]

I think it's fine, though it caters only to a special few as some people can feel weird being around electronics like wireless routers. I, for example, always feel better being around a computer even if I'm not doing anything.

 

[Rofl-Mayo]

i doubt it's the wi-fi, I use wi-fi all the time and I've never gotten sick from it.

 

[Arcanist]

Correlation =/= Causation. I still can't believe I have to keep saying that...

 

[Hithlain]

What we have here is a lack of actual investigation. There are about 100000000000000000 things that could make the kids sick and until you investigate all the children who allegedly got ill from wi-fi and can guarantee that they didn't get sick from getting sneezed on, touching door handles, or not washing their hands then I would say that you're probably a little crazy to assume it was the internet that did it.

My college is one of the most wireless campuses in the United States and we aren't all dead in our rooms. Granted, we are because we don't want to go to class...

 

[tahrey]

>> and the fluorescent lights

aha... I think you just fingered the next boogeyman. High-freq fluorescents. Thus far, they've been a revelation... silent, efficient, better light quality. It's only a matter of time before some twat gets their underwear in a knot and ruins it for everyone.

 

[Tharwen]

Argh! People can imagine that they're feeling sick! I'm doing it right now, completely intentionally.

We have a huge amount of control over our bodies, and being told that you should be feeling ill is very likely to actually cause it. It's a stupid reason to remove an expensive system which has never shown any adverse effects elsewhere in the world.

 

[mjc0961]

Pah. I'd be willing to bet that all the florescent lights stuffed into the ceiling cause more harm than wi-fi.

 

[Quaxar]

Wow, reminds me of the guy who went to court over a neighbour setting up a wifi in his area because these things "make him feel ill".