Last week, I received a news release from a group calling itself the Simcoe County Safe School Committee. (WiFi in schools is Very Dangerous for Children)
I looked at the release and thought – okay, they have one expert who believes WiFi is dangerous and she’ll be speaking about her viewpoint that evening at a public library in Thornbury. I figured it would be picked up by wire services – after all it’s the middle of August and almost anything new become news. I didn’t expect it to amount to more than filler content on a slow summer news day.
Imagine my surprise when I awoke Sunday morning to discover that more than a wire story had come of the release – mass hysteria was well underway.
(It must be noted this group is likely guided by someone experienced in public relations as few have the expertise to use successfully capture the public agenda with such speed as this group.)
Tuesday, the public elementary teachers union joined the call to ban both WiFi and cell phones from schools in Ontario.
I misread that. I had an earlier story that spoke about the Niagara proposal. Thank you Sarah for correcting. Ouch, that’s a huge misread on my part. Huge.
Let me try that again.
Thankfully, the provincial public elementary teachers union rejected a proposal from it’s Niagara chapter to ban WiFi in schools.
What’s next?
That’s the $100 question. The province is dodging responsibility on the matter and saying the WiFi decision is best left to individual school boards.
This means local groups will be able to pressure individual school board trustees – who all face reelection on October 25th in elections which are notoriously easy for small interest groups to sway due to low voter turnout – to ban WiFi in their districts.
The result could easily be a patchwork of boards with WiFi bans in place and a de facto province wide ban.
Eventually, academics will raise and debunk most of the myths that are being propagated about WiFi in their academic journals. By the time the academy raises to the occasion, public opinion will be set and unmovable.
WiFi is the new vaccine. Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, there is a large segment of the population which believes vaccines are dangerous and directly linked to autism.
I wonder how these children feel when they visit the local McDonald’s with it’s free WiFi?
Considering this campaign is directed at public schools only, I’m going assume the plastic structures in PlayLand successful shield children from the harmful radiation.
What may interest you Joey, is a note at the bottom of this Star article, saying Lakehead University does not have WiFi on its campus because the science is still divided and largely unknown at this point as to what effects long-term WiFi exposure has on humans:
http://www.parentcentral.ca/parent/family%20health/children%27s%20health/article/848739–does-wi-fi-make-you-sick
The other thing to remember, is the parents are stressing about long-term exposure. WiFi at McDonald’s or Starbucks would not provide the same amount of exposure to WiFi radiation that having it in a school would — not even close (kids are in school for 6 hours a day, five days a week, 10 months of the year, after all). Perspective on that would have aided you in your analysis, even if you think the teachers in Niagara and parents in Barrie are being ridiculous.
Also, the ban was rejected by the provincial teachers union on Tuesday, not overwhelmingly supported as you stated, unless I’m misreading something.
Thanks Sarah.
I had not seen TheStar article. I had been reading about the Niagara proposal earlier. The ETFO made the right decision today.
In terms of comparison of short-term vs. long-term exposure, there is some merit to the argument.
What we really need on this issue is provincial leadership – passing this down to local school boards is problematic at best. They don’t have the resources or the expertise to properly manage this file.
Thanks again for the correction.
I don’t see why we need provincial leadership on this issue — firstly, a lot of things are decided by local boards and not the province at large; and secondly, the province will likely only repeat the mantra everyone else is: “It’s too early to know/The science is too mixed to make a definitive stance at this point”.
By keeping this a local board issue then parents who have an issue with WiFi being offered in their schools can take it up and perhaps get WiFi removed from their child’s school. If the province made WiFi mandatory in all schools, then a parent would have an impossible task ahead of them if they had a problem with it.
I have no doubt if the science turns out the radiation from WiFi is harmful on young children, that is when the province will step in. But I think for the time being, it should be up to the individual boards. (After all, if the province were to step in and make a statement on it, wouldn’t they then have to make sure every school in every school board in the province had the money to have WiFi in it? That would cost money.)
I’d just like to state that WiFi runs at a frequency 2.4ghz.
Things that also run at this frequency include:
- Wireless phones
- Remote control cars, planes, etc.
- Microwave Ovens
- Bluetooth Devices
- Baby monitors
- Some amateur radio
So not only are these kids been surrounded by wireless every day at school, but they have been since they were kids! Actually, we all have for many decades now.
I echo of Jason Lamb’s comment. Plus, I think this is a lot of uninformed hoopla. Until there is concrete data from qualified engineers about this it’s akin to a bunch of chickens running around with their head’s cut off. Meanwhile the parent chickens give their kids cellphones…
Let’s worry about the cellphone long term exposure first before worrying about WiFi.
As mentioned previously GSM cell phones are rather the same beasts. Now I would not recommend that children use cell phones nor do I recommend that they lie their heads on Wi Fi computers or any computer for that matter. The frequencies power decreased logarithmically with distance. Therefore one would have to remove their children from any area that receives cell phone receiption, if they were concerned about Wi Fi frequencies. Also cordless cell phones are the same as well. Therefore in their homes there should not be any device that emits microwave radiation. Microwave ovens, cordless phones, Wi Fi computers, etc.