CTV: Flawed Testing & Skewed Dataon Wi-Fi Danger in Schools

It's a shame that CTV – owned by Bell Canada, used a flawed testing protocol to misinform the public about the “low” level of Wi-Fi radiation, in the name of “investigative journalism”.

CTV's reporter, Jon Woodard, requested to speak to parents about this issue and we provided a contact for him, with whom he had made the arrangement to conduct an interview. That parent was informed that the interview was canceled only late today when he tried to reach the reporter.

Perhaps this is just a "programme story" to CTV. To us, parents, this is an important issue about the health of our children. To parents with electrosenstive children, it is a matter of whether the child can attend school at all. 

We strongly protest against this PR piece being presented as “news”.

Conflict of interest does not only exist at the CTV/Bell level, but also the party conducting the measurements. CTV engaged Planetworks which is a consultant firm serving industry clients. Planetworks is a vendor involved regularly in celltower rental contracts.

Measuring two schools with Wi-Fi and two different schools without Wi-Fi is a sloppy way to compare. The schools are located in different neighbourhoods.
The proper way is to measure a number of schools with (a) Wi-Fi on, (b) downloading data/video with 20-30 devices in the room at the same time to represent classroom scenario, (c) measure both the nearfield level - user contact with the devices, and (d) the farfield - ambient levels. Then measure in the SAME schools with the Wi-Fi and all wireless devices (including cordless phones) turned off.

Walking around the school with the RF meter is NOT an accurate way to measure. This kind of measurement does not represent real world usage. Children are using laptops/tablets/smartphones in direct contact with their bodies, either in their hands or on their laps against their abdomens and reproductive organs. This walkaround measurement does not reflect the real radiation level which children are exposed to.

The “scientific studies” which Canadian health agencies cite are even more unrealistic, measuring laptop radiation at 50 cm, 1 meter or other “further distances”. This is done to report a lower reading of microwave radiation and is an example of skewing the data.

Comparison between inside and outside the school is irrelevant:

In May 2011 the World Health Organization's IARC (International Agency on Research of Cancer) has classified cellphone/WiFi radiation as 2B Possible Carcinogen. In October, 2011, Health Canada asked parents to reduce children's radiofrequency exposure since "children are typically more sensitive to a variety of environmental agents" and "there is currently a lack of scientific information regarding the potential health impacts of cell phones on children". Just because this type of microwave radiation can be found outside schools does not mean it is safe.
Homes and schools are the two places where children spend the most amount of time. Parents have the choice to take measures to reduce children's exposure to microwave radiation at home by using wired computers which offer the same educational benefits with better security and speed. However, in schools funded by public money and with a captive audience, children are now FORCED to use wireless laptops and tablets which bear long-term health risks, and they are given no choice to avoid this exposure. Reducing exposure at home and in schools will reduce the majority of cumulative exposure for children.

What do cigarette smoke, asbestos, PCB and DDT have in common?

At one time, all were approved for human consumption, only to have been found harmful to human health later. Safety standards can be slow to change, leading to irreparable harm to human health.

School Districts are constantly complaining about the lack of funding. They should use the funding to improve existing wired networks instead of spending additional money on wireless technology.

See this white paper written by BC ERAC (Educational Resource Acquisition Consortium) which represents BC School Districts' IT Departments.

Members list: http://www.bcerac.ca/about/member-list.aspx

Wireless Networking for K-12 Education in BC - July 2007

http://www.bcerac.ca/docs/WirelessNetworkinginK-12.pdf

" the majority of school buildings have some or most teaching and administrative areas serviced by wired network connections... with sophisticated router and switching capability for managing traffic and security."

" wireless technologies are not able to provide the type of data speed experienced with wired connections, typically running at 100Mbps or faster. Thus wireless is still not an obvious replacement for a wired environment."

" Many of the risks associated with wireless... Reliability, slow speed of connections, interference from other devices, cost, security, manageability, compatibility, scalability and consistency of technology implementation."

Reporting “average measurements” is a sneaky way to skew data. See these videos: http://www.safeinschool.org/2012/01/ipad-iphone-wi-fi-radiation-and.html Wi-Fi signals spike every few seconds (at levels higher than cellphone transmission). They stop and go, emitting in bursts. Therefore, by averaging the figures, the resulting numbers look ridiculously low. This is similar to telling people that driving at 120 km/hr is not dangerous because when averaging with the time the car stopped at the red light, the "average speed" was only 20 km/hr.
Reporting only as a % of Health Canada's Danger Code 6 (misnamed as Safety Code 6).
By reporting a percentage, most of the public would not know how the figure converts to actual units and how it compares to other countries like Switzerland, Luxembourg and China, whose national maximum exposure limits are actually hundred to thousands times more stringent than our “danger” standard. The Canadian guideline is outdated and obsolete, protective of corporations' unrestrained wireless expansion but not protective of human health, especially children. http://goo.gl/4pzyE The European Parliament and the Council of Europe have passed repeated resolutions calling their member states NOT to use Wi-Fi. The truth is, even the lowest national exposure limit is already a million times higher than cosmic background radiation. Human bodies are simply not developed for the constant artificial pulse-modulated radiation from cellphone and Wi-Fi, which is being rapidly deployed all around us. Human bodies conduct electricity and absorb such radiation. Schools are imposing this human conduction on our children without parental informed consent.

Russia is among the earliest countries to have started research on microwave radiation. This week, Russia is calling for the replacement of Wi-Fi with wired networks in schools, out of health concern.

The following is the announcement by Professor Yuri Grigoriev, Chairman of Russian National Committee on Non-Ionizing Radiation Protection, and member of the WHO's International Advisory Committee on “EMF and Health”.

19th June 2012.  Translation from the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CemiJ-yIA4&feature=youtu.be

Programme of the Russian Committee on the protection from non-ionising
radiation with regard to the need to introduce strict regulations on the use
of Wi-Fi in kindergartens and schools.

'I have already been informed that pushy parents are already trying to get
this installed in kindergartens... Everybody sees Moscow... '

Mobile network connections are very popular amongst children of various
ages.  The duration of conversations on mobile phones is higher for children
compared to the adult population.  At the same time electromagnetic fields
and radio frequencies are irradiating the brain every day.
Furthermore, children are constantly subjected to electromagnetic radiation
and radio frequencies from the base stations round the clock.

The problem of preserving the health of children subject to the developing
conditions of wireless radio communications is referred to as a priority by
the World Health Organization.

Electromagnetic radiation from Wi-Fi presents an additional burden to a
child whose body is in a state of development and whose mental activities
are in the formative stage.  During this period children are most
susceptible to negative environmental factors.

WHO, Publication 3, April 2004

Furthermore it is necessary to highlight that the current regulations were
developed without taking into consideration this additional influence of
electromagnetic fields.  We don¹t have these regulations yet.

Our Committee believes it is necessary to:

Firstly, draw the attention of the RF Ministry of Health and of all of the
other organizations responsible for the safety of the population, including
children, to the regulations regarding the use of Wi-Fi in kindergartens and
schools, and to increase the sanitary and epidemiological control over
the use of Wi-Fi, and the development of the relevant regulatory framework.

Secondly, to recommend the use of wired networks and not networks using
wireless broadband access systems, including Wi-Fi, in schools and
educational establishments.