School Bans Wi-Fi Over Heatlh Concerns

[Ekonk]

I hope that whenever I become a father I retain my basic common sense.

 

[samsonguy920]

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?

AM and FM frequencies aren't microwaves.

Nonetheless, parents are worried and their concerns are bolstered by a number of high-placed, vocal Wi-Fi critics.

And how many are even bothering to do a little bit of research themselves? If they listen to one biased group that hardly did any work themselves in the matter, then the parents are as guilty of being ignorant. Are we really in that lazy of a society anymore?

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."

Anecdotal? Seriously? When people don't bother to use the proper words to stress what they are trying to say, they are only making themselves sound as dumb as they really are.

 

[TheDoctor455]

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.

Probably not. That's too ordinary. They have to go with something NEWSWORTHY in order to make a big deal out of it.

Of all the possible causes they could've gone with:
bad cafeteria food
kids bringing in contaminants from outside the school's controlled environment
teachers and faculty doing the same
some asshole dumping garbage on campus
idiots setting off some of the nastier stink bombs

of all the possible causes, they immediately pick the one that doesn't make ANY sense.
Yeah... it has to be that damned newfangled wifi.

 

[lacktheknack]

This just in: Earth's magnetic field causes unfortunate few to have headaches! BAN IT!!!!1!!1ELEVENSIES

 

[Electrogecko]

"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.
My immediate reaction was to call BS, but after reading it through, I'm not sure. I have no educated opinion on the matter. Has a scientific study ever been done? I can certainly see why children would be much more vulnerable. I would like to hear this "whole story." I would say "Come back when there's an analytical increase in cancer rates" but my personal policy is preemptive action and better safe than sorry.
It's probably mass hysteria and/or a bout of the flu. These effects seem pretty mild and subjective.

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

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.

"Um, shouldn't we consider that black mold on the ceiling?"

"Shut up, blame technology!"

OT: This seems ridiculous. Schools are very public places. Public places breed illness. Everyone eventually gets the bug and then they all get better. Here is my prediction of a follow up article: "More kids feeling sick. School removes lights. Kids to work with candles."

[sub][sub][sub]Oh Ontario [/sub][/sub][/sub]

 

[Unrulyhandbag]

this is a school, a centre of knowledge. they really should know better than to listen to anecdotal evidence. Especially in the face of real scientific evidence to the contrary.

 

[Kyogissun]

I'm going to list a couple reasons why kids get 'sick' at school:
-Genuine sickness
-Being around classmates whos parents were too stupid to keep them home and prevent them from spreading their sickness
-Food poisoning/bad diet
-Headaches and stressed based inflictions (Be it home or school based, you get one out of every 50 or more kids who have this)
-FAKING IT

These five reasons are a MUCH more sense as the cause of these kids 'sickness'... And I bet those kids are looking to blame the wifi as a bullshit reason for going home early.

Remove the wifi, the lies will come tumbling down and those little bastards will be exposed. Wifi will return to the school eventually and then when someone complains about the wifi, they'll be told to suck it up, LIKE THEY SHOULD.

 

[K9unittp]

This makes sense to me, and it kind of upsets me that so many of you are instantly saying OMG WTF!!!!!???@!1212//1

Wi-Fi utilises microwave radiation to send signals, you know the same stuff thats cooks your pizza pockets in a microwave. It has been know to cause cancer and other illnesses, personally after prolonged exposer to Wi-Fi i get migranes, sometimes these can be serious other times they are just a nuicence; on another note because wi-fi and microwave radiation is becoming more populer more and more people (including children) are having migranes and other possibly dangerous health issues.

There will be more schools to do this...

 

[King Toasty]

Great, the media has a new thing to fear. Like hating vaccines wasn't good enough for them.

 

[Thyunda]

Nonetheless, parents are worried and their concerns are bolstered by a number of high-placed, vocal Wi-Fi critics.

Define 'high placed, vocal Wi-Fi critics'....I wasn't sure we allowed that kind of idiocy to go any further than politics. But...seriously...how do you criticise Wi-Fi? I won't deny that you can have some effects from technology, hell, walking through a shop's anti-theft alarms makes me tingle all over.

 

[A Pious Cultist]

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."

Anecdotal? Seriously? When people don't bother to use the proper words to stress what they are trying to say, they are only making themselves sound as dumb as they really are.

I just watched a youtube video about how anecdotes are unusable to prove anything. Huh.

Althought I do remember hearing of a neighbourhood complaining about ill health due to a radio tower... which wasn't even on at the time.

Wi-Fi utilises microwave radiation to send signals, you know the same stuff thats cooks your pizza pockets in a microwave. It has been know to cause cancer and other illnesses, personally after prolonged exposer to Wi-Fi i get migranes, sometimes these can be serious other times they are just a nuicence; on another note because wi-fi and microwave radiation is becoming more populer more and more people (including children) are having migranes and other possibly dangerous health issues.

Correlation doesn't imply causation, though I suspect looking at tiny mobile phone screens, tv, and computer screens will cause a bit of eye strain that, yes, will cause bad headaches. I doubt any such proof of cancer after long exposure has been proven in any way shape or form, to my knowledge their power would be limited to heating in very high exposures, not any direct DNA damage.

I won't deny that you can have some effects from technology, hell, walking through a shop's anti-theft alarms makes me tingle all over.

Yet several billion people wouldn't feel a thing which leads me to logically conclude you're either a mutant with extra senses or you're psychosomatically feeling the tingling in reaction to your concious knowledge of walking through a detector rather than anything its doing to you.

 

[Thyunda]

This makes sense to me, and it kind of upsets me that so many of you are instantly saying OMG WTF!!!!!???@!1212//1

Wi-Fi utilises microwave radiation to send signals, you know the same stuff thats cooks your pizza pockets in a microwave. It has been know to cause cancer and other illnesses, personally after prolonged exposer to Wi-Fi i get migranes, sometimes these can be serious other times they are just a nuicence; on another note because wi-fi and microwave radiation is becoming more populer more and more people (including children) are having migranes and other possibly dangerous health issues.

There will be more schools to do this...

They said all that about power lines and stuff...and nobody ever wants to live beneath a pylon. I did, for a fair few years, I've had no effect. I'm around Wi-Fi all the time, and I get nothing. I get a headache from the screen if the lights are off, sometimes, but I can honestly call bullshit on this.
Migraines are not necessarily caused by Wi-Fi. Some people just get them. You might be one of those people. And by 'known to cause cancer' you mean 'loosely associated with people who have had cancer'. Like sunlight.

 

[joshthor]

short version: parents are retarded, paranoid, and over protective. instead of keeping the useful thing for education, they decide to get rid of it because: big shocker: kids get sick sometimes.

i mean: really? this is so dumb. there are hundreds of more likely ways kids have gotten sick and i have serious doubts that more kids got sick after the wifi was installed than when it wasnt there.

 

[Formica Archonis]

this is a school, a centre of knowledge. they really should know better than to listen to anecdotal evidence.

You sure it's not just a polite jail where we send kids so we can do grown-up stuff?

 

[Unrulyhandbag]

this is a school, a centre of knowledge. they really should know better than to listen to anecdotal evidence.

You sure it's not just a polite jail where we send kids so we can do grown-up stuff?

oh, it's a boarding school is it?

sure deprive those wealthy little buggers.

otherwise, no it shouldn't be; the school my daughters at certainly isn't.

 

[Desworks]

AM and FM frequencies aren't microwaves.

I thought someone might bring this up. My point was more directed at the fact that they use Electromagnetic Carrier waves, just like wifi, but I do know that AM/FM radios do transmit on non microwave frequencies. I probably should have been a bit clearer about what I meant, my bad.

Wi-Fi utilises microwave radiation to send signals, you know the same stuff thats cooks your pizza pockets in a microwave. It has been know to cause cancer and other illnesses, personally after prolonged exposer to Wi-Fi i get migranes, sometimes these can be serious other times they are just a nuicence; on another note because wi-fi and microwave radiation is becoming more populer more and more people (including children) are having migranes and other possibly dangerous health issues.

No. Saying that Wi-Fi uses microwave radiation and Microwave Ovens use microwave radiation therefore they are the same is like saying that a Lawnmower uses an internal combustion engine and Supertankers use internal combustion engines therefore your lawnmower must put out 90,000 Horsepower.

As was mentioned already in this thread, microwave radiation bombards the planet, released by the sun. Additionally, and critically in the case of health, microwaves are a non-ionising form of radiation. In general, non-ionising will burn you to death long before it give you any form of cancer, as it is unable to affect change on the atomic level and can only excite atoms, which in the case of high intensity bursts causes a heating effect.