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Eleven years later, that apprehension seems moore than a bit quaint, now that a large proportion of schoolkids not only spend their hours not only in classrooms, but at home and virtually everywhere else they go in invisible fields of wireless RF traffic, not only from wirelessly connected computers, but cellphones and other wireless innovations. But is electromagnetic radiation pollution an issue of trivial concern, or are we just sweeping the topic under the proverbial rug?
Environmental levels of background radio frequency and microwave background radiation have risen by factors of thousands since the Second World War - according to EPA estimates increasing at about 15% per year, including radio waves from radio and TV towers, microwaves from cellphones, cell sites, other mobile devices, cordless landline phones, computer LANs and wireless broadband, Bluetooth and other wireless computer peripherals, RFIDs and do forth.
I've been roped in myself. I use various wireless computer mice and sometimes keyboards these days. My broadband service is wireless, feeding into a wireless LAN in my home office, although cell service is spotty in my neighborhood. I've personally become more pragmatic and complacent about the issue over the past decade or so, but thinking about the potential implications still makes me uneasy.
Electromagnetic hypersensitivity (EHS) is regarded by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a real health problem, with reported symptoms - ranging from mild to severe - that include chronic fatigue, depression, body aches, memory loss and sleep disruption. Swedish and British researchers have suggested that perhaps two or three per cent of the population suffers from EHS, while some claims estimate 10 to 25 per cent of national populations may be affected by less severe symptoms.
A group of parents from the Simcoe County Safe Schools Committee ( http://www.safeschool.ca/ ) in central Ontario, Canada, are worried that their children's health could be in danger, contending that the WiFi Internet installed in classrooms at 14 area schools has made children ill with symptoms that include dizziness, hedaches, insomnia, nausea, vertigo, Tachycardia, depression, body aches, attention deficit, memory loss, skin rashes, and night sweats that disappear on weekends and vacations, but return when the kids go back to school. The Committee, whose Advisory Board includes medical and education professionals who are also parents of children in Simcoe County Schools, has documented reports from children complaining of strange problems such as being unable to hold a pencil, feeling faint, chronic headaches, and even an erratic heart rate requiring medical attention, and contends that so far there has been no scientific study concluding that long term exposure to microwaves is safe for children want wireless banned from the schools before fall classes begin.
They also note that last fall the U.S. Government, National Institutes of Health, released a stem cell study linking microwave from carrier frequencies like cell phones and Wifi with infertility, neurological disorders, Leukemia and Cancer, especially in children ( http://ehp03.niehs.nih.gov/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1289%2Fehp.0900781 )
On June 9, 2010, Dr. Magda Havas Phd., a professor at Trent University in Peterborough, Ontario (http://www.trentu.ca/academic/ihs/mhavas.html) lectured to some 100 concerned parents and teachers in Collingwood about the latest science proving that microwave exposure at 2.4 GHz (same as WiFi) can trigger a speeding heart rate known as Tacycardia. This relatively rare childhood symptom has been reported in six children at three schools in Collingwood and Wasaga Beach since the WiFi system was installed.
Some Simcoe-areas parents are planning to transfer their children to other schools or even homeschool them if the schools doesn't ditch the Wi-Fi and switch back to the hardwired Internet LANs already installed in most schools that make the WiFi system "largely redundant and uneccessary", or in areas where wired Internet is unavailable, that Wi-Fi systems should have an on-demand function to limit exposure.
And it's not just the good folks of Simcoe County.
On April 27-29, 2010 the Canadian federal Government's Parliamentary Standing Committee on Health heard two days of testimony including from international scientists calling for people to stop exposing children to microwaves from systems such as cell phones, cell towers and unnecessary Wifi transmitters in schools.
In a 2004 paper entitled "Elecrtromagnetic Fields & Cancers: Children at risk with residential and school exposures to EMFs" Trent U.'s Prof. Havas said "We now have more than 20 years of scientific research from around the world showing adverse health effects associated with exposure to electromagnetic fields from our use of electricity. Both children and adults are affected although children appear to be more sensitive.... There is a consistent 2-to-4-fold risk of children developing leukemia when they are exposed to magnetic fields exceeding 2 to 4 mG in their homes.... Studies of occupational exposure to electromagnetic fields report an increased incidence of adult leukemia, brain tumors, and breast cancer at levels above 2 mG.... These studies in combination with laboratory studies lend credence to the concept that extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields are harmful to human health at levels to which we are currently exposed to in the home, at school, and in the workplace."
Last year, Dr. Havas issued a public warning to all School Boards saying "It is irresponsible to introduce Wi-Fi microwave radiation into a school environment where young children and school employees spend hours each day."
Prof. Havas says: "My research deals with the health effects of non-ionizing electromagnetic energy at the extremely low frequency range associated with electricity (60 Hertz) and at the radio frequency range commonly associated with wireless telecommunication. I am particularly interested in monitoring exposure of the population in urban centres to radio frequency radiation and power-frequency fields. Since children are more sensitive than adults to the potentially harmful effects of EMFs I have been trying to encourage school boards to measure magnetic fields within their schools as part of their health and safety program."
Sounds like that might be a good, sensible, prudent plan.
Charles W. Moore
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I would have written a more erudite response to this, but the Wi-Fi energy in my basement prevented me from doing soˇ