I received a short email today from a principal who had been sent a link from a parent questioning the school’s growing wireless network for fear of the danger of electro-magnetic waves damaging children’s brains and general development and likening ignoring the potential dangers similarly to the dangers of asbestos, tobacco smoking and lead in petrol.
My initial reaction was to say they need to get over themselves.
I use my iPhone as a snooze alarm to wake up in the morning so I sleep with the phone centimetres from my head, I have a wireless network at my home and school. I walk down the main street of town and pick up multiple wireless networks.
Are all these things doing us a damage? Or is this fear coming from a fear of all things digital?
To me ordinary radio waves coming through the air is like magic. In the old days were people afraid of radio? Are the dying bees of America a result of wireless networks broadcasting their poison?
A little support on what to advise would be very much appreciated.
Why is it when we have anything new, there is so much resistance? There was a report on Breakfast the other morning that said there was no real evidence to support that argument. You could reply with this and then there is this
Resources twittered from Barbara- hope others can add hyperlinks..
Ten reasons to ban pens and pencils…
http://mindshift.kqed.org/2010/11/10-reasons-to-ban-pens-and-pencils-in-the-classroom/
The pencil story…
http://www.ictpd.net/bj/publish/pencils.htm
@CNCLtd suggested on Twitter that I go looking for advice from our Ministry of Health.
I did find this resource
http://www.nrl.moh.govt.nz/faq/radiationintheworkplace.asp#wifi
that says
“There is no consistent evidence to date that exposure to the RF signals from WiFi and WLANs adversely affect the health of the general population.”
The World Health Organisation says
“From all evidence accumulated so far, no adverse short- or long-term health effects have been shown to occur from the RF signals produced by base stations. Since wireless networks produce generally lower RF signals than base stations, no adverse health effects are expected from exposure to them.”
Good advice so far I think.
My initial reaction was the same as yours. However, a few months ago a colleague presented me with a literature review of several hundred medical references from 2009-2010 which detailed various detrimental side effects to human tissue caused by exposure to the waves emitted by wireless technologies. Another colleague is currently undergoing a ‘switching off’ experiment (under medical advice) to see if disabling wireless transmitting devices in her bedroom will help reduce any of the ongoing symptoms she has been experiencing in recent months. This is easier said than done in an incresingly wifi world. The jury is still out for me but I have certainly become more aware of the issue during the past year or so.
Angela
My cousin has a brain tumour and does the same thing at night.
But then she got the brain tumour before she got wireless internet in her home.
Even if you turn off your own transmitting devices I still can’t turn my neighbour’s off.
Thanks for your comments.
And then there’s this from a fellow whose knowledge of all things IT I hold in utmost regard…
Then again, leakage from your average microwave oven is exponentially higher than the power of a cellphone’s transmitter (and in the same section of the EMI spectrum) and people operate those things while standing at the door peering in!
This last was delivered by email rather than blog comment. AK
And this came to me as a link on Twitter from Innes Kennard
http://www.learningwithoutfrontiers.com/blog/2011/5/16/fear-of-a-wireless-planet.html
Interesting read Allanah. With 21st C technology (which we are now 11 years into), many people have a fear of ‘the new’ – technology: computers, iphones, ipods etc. As Sir Ken said in his presentation, the theologians and church ministers were frightened at the time when print was introduced to the masses, people would ‘know stuff’. No different to today really, we can all find out what we want, when we want it and now.
As for impact of radio waves, who knows……….I don’t!
If you’re interested in cell phone use listen here
http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/ckpt/ckpt-20110601-1819-cancer_society_on_possibly_carcinogenic_cellphone_report-048.mp3
You might be interested in this thread on the ‘Techies’ Google group, on a similar topic: https://groups.google.com/group/techies-for-schools/browse_thread/thread/3209b7499bfcf58d?hl=en