Parents Hold Kids From School to Protest Wi-Fi

There are wifi networks everywhere. I guarantee there are at least 3 the children are in range of at home, assuming they don't have their own router, which, again, they probably do.
I bet if you took them out of school and brought them to McDonalds (where there is free wifi) they would say they felt fine.

"This is the first generation of children that has been in that particular learning environment, so how Health Canada can say that it's safe is really quite a mystery to us," insists the leader of the parent group on her cell phone,

FIXED

I wonder how many of the kids have Cell phones? And how many of them have there WiFi turned on?

They question how Health Canada can say it is safe..

What is supporting their claim that it's not safe?

I was in Mississauga, ON last week and this was on the news there. I just sat there in disbelief. I'll bet these same people whipped out their cell phones to makes calls and organize (I'll bet they even whipped up something for dinner in their microwave oven :/). Plus they probably have WiFi in their homes as well. It never ceases to amaze me the level of idiocy out there. As Carl Sagan once said, the two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity.

I'll gladly use nuclear power, but I don't want a uranium fuel rod in my living room. I get what you are saying, and disagree with the whole idea that wifi is causing problems in schools. But comparing a WiFi AP with using a microwave is silly. The microwave is operating at several orders of magnitude more power inside of an RF-shielded case (or is at least suppose to be).

Well, to be fair you consider something unsafe until reasonable evidence suggests otherwise. You wouldn't want to start jamming random chemicals in people's food because it hadn't been proven unsafe yet.

That said, there is plenty of reasonable evidence for WiFi being safe, there have been numerous studies done showing little to no effect and there have been a few studies done showing that "sensitives" are no more or less likely to report symptoms when there is or isn't WiFi signals showing up, so these people are crackpots.

Yeah,

Nice to know the US hasn't cornered the market on crackpots just yet.....

Yes they are shielded but it is not 100%. Try using a WiFi device near an operating microwave oven. There is usually enough leakage to jam the signal. You are probably getting a similar level of exposure to 2.4GHz energy from the microwave as you are from your wireless handheld device. Of course the microwave does not operate as long as the wireless AP but if these folks are worried about RF exposure then they should ditch every emitter of RF in their homes just to be safe

They are basing their beliefs on Junk Science just like Autism with mercury in the vaccines that was later disproven.

People have been using cordless phones for years (since the breakup of Bell System in the US in 1984) and there is no proof that cordless phones (and cell phones) affect child devlopment or cause cancer.

Cordless phones (especially the older ones) operate on the same frequencies as Wi-Fi and Cordless phones are more powerful than Wi-Fi because they will choke out a Wi-Fi signal when someone is using a 2.4 gHz cordless phone.

Cell phones put out much more power than Wi-Fi as their signals transmit further distances.

As for the schools using Wi-Fi, thats progress. I remember during my 7th grade year in middle school (1996-1997) scholl year, they wired the school for internet and with the then current technology, they had to pull ethernet cabling throughout the school and that entailed running a data cable to each computer in the school (there were like several hundred in a school of 700 students) back to the ethernet switch in the storage closet by the main office. That was labor intensive (especially in a building that was built in 1921 with an addition built in 1945) and cost the school district millions of dollars considering there were 30 plus school in the district.

Now you just stratigically place Wi-Fi access points throughout the school and place the computers wherever they are needed. Computer labs might have their own access point though.

You still want Ethernet for fixed position computers, but it's great when space-crunched schools can turn a regular classroom into a computer lab for an hour with a cart of laptops that run off of wireless.

Taking their kids out of school?

They are raising their children to be just as stupid as they are.

And the cycle continues...

I was talking about the then-current technology that they had when I was in school (I graduated high school in 2002). When they wired the schools (when I was in middle school) was around 1996-1997.

As for Wi-Fi in schools, I am all in favor of it, since it keeps the schools costs down. Back in the day, if a teacher wanted to move or add a computer, they had to put a work order into technology support and they had to run a new drop. Now you just setup the computer and thats it, no work order required

Maxwell's equations for electromagnetic waves show that the electrical properties of salty water (ex.: blood and tissues) will absorb most RF 2+GHz energy within milimeters... so it is scientifically impossible for WiFi to affect the brain unless you ramp power up several orders of magnitude to compensate for attenuation.

The funniest thing about RF crackpots is that they have been exposed to RF energy from AM/FM/TV stations sometimes in the MEGA WATT range for 40+ years at low frequencies that have much higher penetration depth and now they are panicking about WiFi and cells in the 0.1-10W power range operating at frequencies that cannot even get through skin.

uses the same frequencies 2.4 Ghz/5 Ghz

I don't think any wifi is on 900mhz

but what kills me is how many traveling hotspots there are now that its unavoidable to be hit by a traveling router...

Yes, this part is funny:

quote:

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"This is the first generation of children that has been in that particular learning environment, so how Health Canada can say that it's safe is really quite a mystery to us," insists the leader of the parent group,

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So, her contention is that every human activity has to be proven safe before it is allowed. That is called argumentum ad ignorantiam or "appeal to ignorance". No facts proving it is safe, so that of course to her means it is dangerous.

...their brains are probably addled by over-exposure to WiFi...



Jim

All you have to do is say" won't someone think of the children" and all logic goes out the window tho... It's just a sad fact. And yes, what do you bet all the moms have cellphones, and a good portion of the kids have cellphones, and they probably have wi-fi in their houses... This is just out of line... Florescent lights cause headaches in some people. No one talks about that?!!

oops

The school should say OK no worries
Good luck finding a school for your kids.
Well be fine without them

This is why the state should confiscate children and raise them in a proper environment. Cases like this, religious parents, etc. It all qualifies as child abuse.

Wow. I think that's a bit extreme for simply voicing an opinion on something this trivial.

These are the same people who believe crop circles are made by space aliens.

The safe usage guidelines for most of our mobile devices are violated by just about everyone. If you keep your cellphone in your pocket without a holster/standoff or place the ear piece up to your ear while holding it normally it can easily exceed the USG SAR limit. The same goes for Notebook antennas stowed in the display bezel which make it difficult to use the keyboard without bumping up against the SAR limit.

Now imagine a classroom of 30 kids all with laptops each with WIFI radios spewing radiation the whole day. EMR follows inverse square law but there are still thirty radios in a single room chattering all day long each and every school day year after year.

Do I believe WIFI/Cell phones cause cancer or turn you into a mindless zombie? In my baseless opinion not any more than eating an apple or otherwise living.

Do I believe it is possible for any study to have a chance in hell of finding a weak cancer link assuming it did exist in a statistically significant manner. Almost by identity the answer is absolutely not. The required sample size and dwell time of the study would likely be enormous. Cellular damage can take decades to translate into increased cancer risk.

Do I believe WiFi is required for a computer lab or student issued computers to attach to a school network or otherwise in any way necessary to educate students? Absolutely not.

If there is a doubt and you can easily do without I'm not surprised that some parents would be upset. Why roll the dice with your kids future when there is no reason or benefit in doing so?

Preventing your child from getting an education is child abuse.

»en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In ··· uare_law

I am not one to claim or think that WiFi is dangerous, But i am also not foolish enough to discount that WifFi just MIGHT key word being MIGHT be....

Wifi technology has not been around long enough to make any type of definitive conclusion either way. The fact is it could 40, 50, 60 years of constant exposure before it is known if it is or not...see Asbestos...some of those people showed no signs of damage until 40+ years of exposure....

Now studies have shown that WiFi and Cellphone "may" the key word being "may" (further study is needed on this issue) that these technologies are leading to killing off our bee population....Scientists right now are testing a hypothesis(a theory) that the signals emitted match up pretty close with the signals the Queen Bee gives to her hive, and the workers get confused and leave the hive and die...Collective Hive Disorder...

im not saying Wifi/cell phones cause this..im saying it "might be"...more research is needed...but one must say...what a conincidence that the bees started having trouble the minute the cell phone explosion of towers started....

again...those who make money from this technology(cell phone companies) will do everything they can with their deep pocket books to prevent, discredit, and end any type of research that may put a dent in their chances at a profit...even if its true.

As i said...more research is needed with another 30-40 years before we can come to any definitive conclusion either way. Until then, i will continue to use WiFi and my cell phone....

However...if i was a betting man....i say odds are...Wifi and cell phones do have side effects of some kind, and in the next 30 years...Verizon and others will be facing the same kinds of lawsuits the tobbacco companies did....as i said...if i was a betting man that would be my odds....just a hunch.

As i said, until then i will keep using Wifi and cellphones...

i will never discount an idea until it has been throughly researched, because i have an open mind...WiFi has not been in widespread use long enough to accurately guage its potential risks longterm...when im 70(40+ years from now) we will have answers to these questions one way or the other.

I will not however discount an idea based on junk science and that comes from both sides of the court...

remember Socrates once said "True knowledge is knowing how little you actually know"

as i said...40 years from now...when so many people have been exposed to wifi emitters in their homes for the longterm...then we will make a conclusion.

until then, arguments on both sides of the fence are nothing more then conjecture and lack long term studies(40 years or more) to make real statements either way.

just my 2 cents.

I do agree, particularly since we know that those who would run your state-sponsored program are so wonderfully reasonable, intelligent, and technologically inclined. Surely, they are sinless and perfectly rational beings, never making any error, just like you. Oh how wonderful it will be...
Sorry, folks, my keyboard is melting due to the heat of the sarcasm. I swear, when I read this sort of comment, it almost makes me want to become one of the American conservatives who think the only thing people should do with a government is to cut its funding. On the other hand, when I read the american conservatives, I almost want to impose the system in brave new world. I'm not sure which form of folly wins the contest for the greatest stupidity, but it's definitely a close one!

yeah that was extreme....

agreed!

that statement from Xizer was way over the top....