Ont. parents suspect Wi-Fi making kids sick

[coffeeFreak]

Ont. parents suspect Wi-Fi making kids sick
Last Updated: Monday, August 16, 2010 | 9:48 AM ET Comments636Recommend233
The Canadian Press

A group of central Ontario parents is demanding their children's schools turn off wireless internet before they head back to school next month, fearing the technology is making the kids sick.

Some parents in the Barrie, Ont., area say their children are showing a host of symptoms, ranging from headaches to dizziness and nausea and even racing heart rates.

They believe the Wi-Fi setup in their kids' elementary schools may be the problem.

The parents complain they can't get the Simcoe County school board or anyone else to take their concerns seriously, even though the children's symptoms all disappear on weekends when they aren't in school.

"Parents are getting together and realizing this is the pattern," said Rodney Palmer of the Simcoe County Safe School Committee.

"We went to the school board and they did nothing."

The symptoms, which also include memory loss, trouble concentrating, skin rashes, hyperactivity, night sweats and insomnia, have been reported in 14 Ontario schools in Barrie, Bradford, Collingwood, Orillia and Wasaga Beach since the board decided to go wireless, Palmer said.

"These kids are getting sick at school but not at home," he said.

"I'm not saying it's because of the Wi-Fi because we don't know yet, but I've pretty much eliminated every other possible source."

The Simcoe County school board could not be reached for comment Friday because their offices were closed.

The parents group has offered to pay for wired connections if the board switches off the Wi-Fi, Palmer said.

"They didn't even say no," he said. "They ignored it and … reaffirmed their position supporting Wi-Fi.

"They are culpable and … they have the gall to go on the record and say they haven't had any doctor's notes. Well what doctor has been schooled about the rate of microwave infections?"

Susan Clarke, a former research consultant to the Harvard School of Public Health, said Wi-Fi technology alters fundamental physiological functioning and can cause neurological and cardiac symptoms.

Young kids most susceptible

"We have statistics that show that children, especially young children, are going to absorb much more radiation than older children and adults because of their thinner skulls and because the size of their brains more closely approximates the size of the wavelength being deployed," Clarke said.

Wireless technology also wastes energy, is less secure than wired connections, could be violating a student's right to a safe environment and should be turned off in schools, Clarke added.

"The simple solution is plug back in the wired, ported system that's already there and unplug the wireless," she said. "It's real easy and it costs nothing. In fact, it will save money."

Professor Magda Havas of Trent University in Peterborough, Ont., who does research on the health effects of electromagnetic radiation, issued an open letter to parents and boards saying she is "increasingly concerned" about Wi-Fi and cellphone use at schools.

Claims by Health Canada that Wi-Fi is safe provided exposures to radiation are below federal guidelines are "outdated and incorrect," based on the growing number of scientific publications reporting adverse health and biological effects, Havas wrote.

"It is irresponsible to introduce Wi-Fi microwave radiation into a school environment where young children and school employees spend hours each day."

The Ontario Ministry of Education said it has heard from the parents in Simcoe County and received a complaint passed along from a Peterborough family worried about Wi-Fi in schools. But the ministry said it is up to local school boards to deal with the issue.

"The boards, the principals and the teachers should work together to address those concerns," said ministry spokeswoman Erin Moroz.

The provincial New Democrats said they too had been hearing from parents worried about the effects of wireless technology on children, and called on the chief medical officer of health to investigate.

"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," said NDP health critic France Gelinas.

"There is enough anecdotal evidence from parents that this is worth looking into."

Palmer plans to find alternate schools or even home school his two children this fall if the board doesn't agree to turn off the Wi-Fi and said other parents will likely follow suit if the symptoms return.

"If they're going to continue to endanger the health of children, I can predict that many of the parents who are now writing us saying their kids have been fine all summer are going to have a change of heart about the third week of September when their kids are coming home from school with these problems, particularly the ones that are passing out and falling down, hitting their head on the gym floor," he said.

While parents worry about younger children, concerns about the health effects of wireless technology prompted Lakehead University to virtually ban Wi-Fi from its campuses in Thunder Bay, Ont., and Orillia, Ont.

"There will be no Wi-Fi connectivity provided in those areas of the university already served by hard wire connectivity until such time as the potential health effects have been scientifically rebutted or there are adequate protective measures that can be taken," says Lakehead's policy on Wi-Fi and cellular antennas.

http://www.cbc.ca/consumer/story/2010/08/15/ontario-wifi.html

Thought this was an interesting piece. Kind of makes a person wonder.

[vmichelle]

Yeah, while I was reading this article I kept changing my opinion.
I'm curious as to what brought them towards the suspicion of wi-fi being the cause in the first place?
If I remember correctly the article eventually states that the school has had wi-fi for some time now, but only recently children have become sick.

[coffeeFreak]

Yeah, while I was reading this article I kept changing my opinion.
I'm curious as to what brought them towards the suspicion of wi-fi being the cause in the first place?
If I remember correctly the article eventually states that the school has had wi-fi for some time now, but only recently children have become sick.

The symptoms, which also include memory loss, trouble concentrating, skin rashes, hyperactivity, night sweats and insomnia, have been reported in 14 Ontario schools in Barrie, Bradford, Collingwood, Orillia and Wasaga Beach since the board decided to go wireless, Palmer said...

"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," said NDP health critic France Gelinas.

"There is enough anecdotal evidence from parents that this is worth looking into."

[vmichelle]

Yeah, while I was reading this article I kept changing my opinion.
I'm curious as to what brought them towards the suspicion of wi-fi being the cause in the first place?
If I remember correctly the article eventually states that the school has had wi-fi for some time now, but only recently children have become sick.

The symptoms, which also include memory loss, trouble concentrating, skin rashes, hyperactivity, night sweats and insomnia, have been reported in 14 Ontario schools in Barrie, Bradford, Collingwood, Orillia and Wasaga Beach since the board decided to go wireless, Palmer said...

"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," said NDP health critic France Gelinas.

"There is enough anecdotal evidence from parents that this is worth looking into."

Nevermind, apparently I like to make things up...
Thanks for the clarification.

[KtownCouple]

Sounds like a bunch of nutjob parents who are being over protective.

[gardengirl]

Anecdotal evidence from parents....gee that sounds like legitimate science.
The range of symptoms is pretty broad and non specific.
Whatever happened to all the diseases caused by the fluorescent lighting in schools?

[Scadam]

I'm sure they'd already ruled out other scary possibilities, like dangerous combinations of astrological signs

[Nom_de_Plume]

I guess I don't understand why it's only the schools wifi that the parents claim is making the kids ill.
wifi is EVERYWHERE almost every building has multiple wifi networks running.
Hotels, shops, offices, bowling alleys almost every place in town is within range of a wifi network.
I'm suspecting the kids getting ill at the school has more to do with something else, ventilation system, proximity to stronger electromagnetic fields from power lines in that particular location.(just guessing here)
Otherwise the kids would be getting ill in other places as well.

[StraitTalk]

First it's cell phones. Now it's WiFi.

The funny thing is that these things definitely are degrading society but it has nothing to do with microwaves.

[Tree Top]

We aren't discussing the issue in its entirety. Broadcasters are talking about interference issues, the super Wi Fi is going to go through walls and in the discussion on whether Wi Fi is safe in schools, this will go through pregnant moms, the fetus, children as well as the adults.

While industry argues about this, why do we use coaxial cable? One function is to protect from electromagnetic interference. Humans are a very precise and intricate electrical system. They run off 10 to 100 millivolts and as low as 7.8 Hz. Imposing 2.4 to 5 GHz(5 billion Hz) on that electrical system is going to have a resultant frequency we don't run off and in an electrical application there would be failure. The children in schools don't have the same protection as a coaxial cable and they aren't just sick, their electrical systems are challenged.

Heating effect in a circuit is a result of loading, electrical problems or the fact these childrens made out of atoms and molecules are polarizing 4.8 to 10 billion times a second. Ask the wireless industry or CBC technical support if we could impose different frequencies on their systems and what would happen? Look on the back or underside of your computer and you can see electrical specifications or it won't work.

Never taking away from our children or adults but we are electrical. I know it is a pain because I have worked in the electrical industry, we need to hard wire those school as well as other areas. In nature we have bees and pollinators, etc relying on the earth's magnetic field for navigation. No wonder they are getting lost except in that case it is our food sources threatened.