Barrie parents blaming Wi-Fi for children’s behaviour in school are apparently unfamiliar with children, school
From the grain of salt department: a group of parents in Barrie are complaining that new wireless networks in local elementary schools have led to a number of bizarre conditions in their children. The Globe and Mail reports:
Some parents in the Barrie, Ont., area say their children are showing a host of symptoms ranging from headaches and dizziness to nausea and even racing heart rates…
The symptoms, which also include memory loss, trouble concentrating, skin rashes, hyperactivity, night sweats and insomnia, have been reported in 14 Ontario schools in Barrie, Bradford, Collingwood, Orillia and Wasaga Beach since the board decided to go wireless, said Rodney Palmer.
There are so many reasons to be skeptical of this claim. The first is that Wi-Fi signals are basically ubiquitous these days, so isolating the exposure at school would be difficult at best. (Not that this argument will comfort concerned parents.) Not to be insensitive, but if school-age children are hyperactive, suffer from insomnia and have trouble concentrating, maybe the simple explanation is that they are…school-age children?
We’re surprised to learn that Lakehead University in Thunder Bay has taken this seriously—it’s banned Wi-Fi from areas with hardwire connections. There’s nothing particularly significant about the frequency used by Wi-Fi networks: a bit lower on the dial [PDF] is satellite radio, and a bit higher is that of GPS signals, both of which are much harder to escape than your local router. Given how quickly radio signals of all kinds lose their power—it’s called the inverse square law—this seems very much like making a mountain out of less than a molehill. But hey, skeptics are wrong too, so maybe we could get a scientist to check this out? But don’t take a blogger’s word for it unless they’ve got a PhD and teach at Yale. Like this guy. To violently paraphrase him, “Seriously? Wi-fi is way weaker than cell phones, and we can’t prove anything wrong with those. Now leave me alone.”
• Barrie parents demand schools turn off Wi-Fi [Globe and Mail]
• Ont. parents suspect Wi-Fi making kids sick [CBC News]
• Barrie area parents demand schools ditch wireless Internet [Toronto Star]
• Banning Wi-Fi From Schools [Neurologica via Torontoist]
![](http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https://torontolife.com/city/barrie-parents-blaming-wi-fi-for-childrens-behaviour-in-school-are-apparently-unfamiliar-with-children-school/&title=Barrie parents blaming Wi-Fi for children’s behaviour in school are apparently unfamiliar with children, school&picture=https://torontolife.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/wifi-kids.jpg&description=[caption id="attachment_35669" align="alignleft" width="320" caption="This is your kid on Wi-Fi (Image: Jeff Karpala)"][/caption]
From the grain of salt department: a group of parents in Barrie are complaining that new wireless networks in local elementary schools have led to a number of bizarre conditions in their children. The Globe and Mail reports:
Some parents in the Barrie, Ont., area say their children are showing a host of symptoms ranging from headaches and dizziness to nausea and even racing heart rates...
The symptoms, which also include memory loss, trouble concentrating, skin rashes, hyperactivity, night sweats and insomnia, have been reported in 14 Ontario schools in Barrie, Bradford, Collingwood, Orillia and Wasaga Beach since the board decided to go wireless, said Rodney Palmer.
There are so many reasons to be skeptical of this claim. The first is that Wi-Fi signals are basically ubiquitous these days, so isolating the exposure at school would be difficult at best. (Not that this argument will comfort concerned parents.) Not to be insensitive, but if school-age children are hyperactive, suffer from insomnia and have trouble concentrating, maybe the simple explanation is that they are...school-age children?
We're surprised to learn that Lakehead University in Thunder Bay has taken this seriously—it's banned Wi-Fi from areas with hardwire connections. There's nothing particularly significant about the frequency used by Wi-Fi networks: a bit lower on the dial [PDF] is satellite radio, and a bit higher is that of GPS signals, both of which are much harder to escape than your local router. Given how quickly radio signals of all kinds lose their power—it's called the inverse square law—this seems very much like making a mountain out of less than a molehill. But hey, skeptics are wrong too, so maybe we could get a scientist to check this out? But don't take a blogger's word for it unless they've got a PhD and teach at Yale. Like this guy. To violently paraphrase him, "Seriously? Wi-fi is way weaker than cell phones, and we can't prove anything wrong with those. Now leave me alone."
• Barrie parents demand schools turn off Wi-Fi [Globe and Mail]
• Ont. parents suspect Wi-Fi making kids sick [CBC News]
• Barrie area parents demand schools ditch wireless Internet [Toronto Star]
• Banning Wi-Fi From Schools [Neurologica via Torontoist]){kind=link}
Dear parents if your are worried than maybe you should get a full medical exam, eye exam and disability testing before you blame technology that’s been in the main stream for a decade.
Relaxtion exercises are also great for getting one to sleep.
in my 21 years of using a computer (i’m 22) I have never had issues due to wireless or wifi beyond setting them up. This saddens me and makes me worried for the parents, better start making CBT manditory for any child who has a paranoid parent.
“From the grain of salt department: a group of parents in Barrie are complaining that new wireless networks in local elementary schools have led to a number of bizarre conditions in their children.”
There’s a grass roots committee called the “Safe School Committee” interested in protecting the health of their’s and others’ children in our regional community; and you begin your article by classifying their concerns as complaints and the cited conditions of their children as bizarre?
Way to go John. Way to contribute!
Feel free to read more on the actual health concerns (rather than diatribe from whomever) here:
http://safeschool.ca/Health_Warnings.html
The illnesses and deterioration of health can be easily eliminated, and the wifi maintained. The EarthCalm OMEGA WiFi incorporates EarthCalm’s proprietary technologies to transform the hazardous fields created by routers and laptops into a beneficial field of protection. It does this by modulating EarthCalm grounding patterns into the EMF microwave field generated by the router or laptop, which allows your body to dissipate the effects of the hazardous radiation. In addition, the EarthCalm grounding patterns amplify your ground in the earth’s electromagnetic field, which creates a sense of well-being. Most people notice the relief instantly as soon as they plug in the OMEGA WiFi. On sale for $187.
For more than 25 years, EarthCalm has offered people protection from EMFs with a variety of products that re-establish and strengthen the resonance between the human nervous system and the earth, thus allowing the body to heal itself of many health issues. EarthCalm is the leading pioneer in the field with its revolutionary technology involving both Scalar Resonance and Vortex Shielding. Both of these technologies serve to free you from the assault of EMFs on your body, allowing you to experience increased relaxation and well-being in your life and deeper levels of healing. Visit http://www.earthcalm.ca for more information.
What idiots! … radio waves permeate the schools form a dozen fronts wifi signals are only one of these .. get real you red neck fools! .. your kids are retarded it’s nothing to do with the radio wavbes
Omg at 1 foot distance a wifi router gives off .5 mG a florescent bulb used in schools for 50 years gives off 2 mG. Your all idiots. Pure and simple take a reading using a proper gauss meter and post actual readings. Of course no one is interested in actual information like a numbered reading or they would be found out for the frauds they are. Tin foil I hear is very effective at shielding from EMFs I recommend wearing it on your head.
Tinfoil! Tinfoil! That should fix the problem dear parents -just wrap your children in tinfoil and send them out into the world.
The problem is real but not WiFi related. It’s called Subliminal Distraction.
Pictures and video used to illustrate computer use in these schools show students crowded together, using laptops, sitting in each other’s peripheral vision, without Cubicle Level Protection.
The office cubicle was designed to deal with the vision startle reflex when this problem appeared in offices forty years ago.
Cubicles block peripheral vision for a concentrating worker preventing the subliminal detection of threat-movement and a massive number of failed attempts to trigger that reflex.
The entire cubicle would not be necessary but there should be a peripheral vision blocking panel on both sides of a student using a computer in a crowded location such as a classroom.
VisionAndPsychosis_Net is a seven year investigation of Subliminal Distraction.
Hello, i was having very bad headaches. They would usually occur on the weekends and Sat and Sun mornings when i woke up were the worst. Been suffering for a few years now. I finally started unplugging my router at night and voila, haven’t had a headache since. Maybe there is something to it that only affects some people.
I’m embarrassed that such stupid people would complain about such stupid things in my city. The people who are complaining are the same people who have refused to go near a computer in there lifetime, they are across of change, and if they don’t understand how something works it scares them. This is so ridiculous it’s unbelievable.
Wi-Fi ‘ IS’!!! BAD!!! So many countries are banning wi-fi in schools due to sensitivity in developing young children.anyone who says wifi is safe, is stupid. You need to spen more time reading, reasearching and using common sense. Hitler used microwave radiations in his death camps, just like he used flouride.
WOULD YOU PUT YOUR KID IN A MICROWAVE OVEN FOR 5 SECONDS???
WHY WOULD YOU EXCPECT PARENTS TO PUT THEM IN ONE FOR 8 HOURS A DAY!!!!!!!!!
Stupid stupid school board directors.STUPID AS THEY COME.
Hey pat(person who commented before me) your an idiot.