In These New Times

Meaford Independent

2nd June, 2010

There is new evidence that suggests the Wi-Fi in our schools may cause serious short and/or long term health problems, and this has some Meaford parents concerned.

What is Wi-Fi?  Wi-Fi is a microwave transmitter that is used to connect to the internet without wires. Some concerned parents are beginning to feel that wi-fi might be convenient but not necessary as every school has all of the wiring required still available to plug back into the internet in every room.

Wi-Fi comes with a long list of potential health risks.  Wi-Fi or wireless router signals are microwaves just like cell phones.   There is growing concern that Wi-Fi is potentially harmful, especially to children.  Microwave exposure is associated with infertility, neurological disorders, Leukaemia and Cancer, especially in children.

Each school has a large main antenna in the centre of the school and multiple smaller ones placed in classrooms further away to boost the signal strength as it starts to weaken.  It sends signals all day/night and never gets turned off.

Is Wi-Fi safe?  According to hundreds of Doctors and Researchers (including Trent University’s Dr. Magda Havas), Canada’s safety guidelines are outdated.  Wi-Fi is new technology, while the safety studies are old and based on thermal effects only, meaning that if the internal organs of an adult are not HEATED in less than 6 minutes they consider it to be within the guidelines.  There has never been a study done on children’s long term exposure to low level microwave radiation (Wi-Fi) and the biological effects.

Now children starting as early as three years old are exposed to this low level microwave radiation for 6-8 hours each day at school.  They will be exposed five days each week for the next 14-20 years.

According to researchers like Dr. Havas, biological effects may include increased permeability of the blood brain barrier, increased calcium flux, increase in cancer and DNA breaks, induced stress proteins, and nerve damage.  Exposure to this energy is associated with altered white blood cells in school children; childhood leukemia; impaired motor function, reaction time, and memory; headaches, dizziness, fatigue, weakness, and insomnia.

According to a group of concerned parents in Meaford, symptoms showing up in area school children include:

Headaches (3-5X per week, requiring pain medication)

Dizziness – Nausea – Vertigo (subsides when student leaves the school)

Visual and Auditory Distortion (unsure of where they are, voices change volume)

Racing Heart Rate (Tachycardia)

Memory Loss  (trouble remembering school material)

Attention Deficit (trouble concentrating while in class)

Skin Rash  (mostly lower leg, goes away on weekends or longer breaks)

Hyperactivity (particularly among children not previously known to be hyperactive)

Night Sweats (unexplainable, unrelated to fever, and lasting several nights)

Insomnia

Some parents are also noticing that in the past year their kids “aren’t quite the same”. Explanations of this description include having dropped a grade point, no longer getting along with friends, and behavioural notes coming home from the teacher where in previous years there were none.

Symptoms of Microwave Exposure can vary from child to child. All of these symptoms have been reported by parents of children attending schools in Collingwood, Ont. The symptoms tend to subside when the children come home, or on weekends and extended periods away from their school.

Red blood cells seen under a microscopes after exposure to 90 seconds of cell phone microwave radiation  (Wi-Fi or wireless router signals are microwaves just like cell phones) show that the cells have lost their polarity and integrity and are clumping together. This results in hypoxia or a lack of oxygen reaching the cells in the body’s organs. Due to numerous cells clumping together a cell’s surface area is diminished and this results in the inability of the red blood cell to take in sufficient oxygen.

Since the brain consumes 20% of the oxygen carried by red blood cells, the possible effects of this are a diminished ability to remember new things.  Children’s developing nervous systems – having not reached full maturation – are especially sensitive to the effects of mobile phone microwave radiation.  Dr Gerd Oberfeld, head of Salzburg’s Public Department of Environmental Health considers Wi-Fi dangerous, especially for children, and has called for their removal.

“Wi-Fi in schools is basically a weaker microwave. With a microwave oven, you close the door and the microwaves are contained within the oven, whereas, with our schools, the microwaves are released into the environment. The school becomes the microwave,” says Dr. Magda Havas of Trent University.

At the most recent Bluewater & District School Board (BWSB) meeting on Tuesday, June 15, 2010 the WiFi Advisory Committee to St. Vincent Euphrasia Elementary School Parent Council in Meaford urged the BWSB to err on the side of caution and remove the Wi-Fi until a study can be done on children’s long term exposure to low level microwave radiation (Wi-Fi) and the biological effects.

The group asked the board to return to using the existing wires in each classroom which would be of no additional cost and the internet would continue uninterrupted as it was a few years ago, prior to the installation of the wireless routers.

The board refused the request of these parents so they are now asking for other concerned parents to help them inform local School Trustees of their concerns.

A petition has been prepared and can be downloaded by clicking here.  (Will open a PDF file)

For more information or if you believe your child may have symptoms, please visit http://www.safeschool.ca and/or contact the parent group by emailing sveparentcouncil@gmail.com .

Please mail your signed petitions to S.V.E. Parent Council  (box 596, Thornbury, ON  N0H 2P0)