Gegevens

Gepubliceerd: donderdag 28 februari 2013 10:20

electricsense.com - For me, as an electrosensitive person, the worst part about the "EMF thing", by far, is what it's doing to our kids.

It's seeing pregnant mothers talk happily and freely on cell phones. It's seeing young children, sometimes toddlers, use cell phones like toys. It's seeing the massive electromagnetic radiation overexposure that all our children are being subjected to.

One part of this overexposure is WiFi in schools. Thankfully we are now seeing, bit by bit, schools which are becoming " EMF aware". Schools like Pretty River Academy in Collingwood, Ontario who have made the decision to have their WiFi system replaced by a hardwired network.

At the moment it seems as though for most people the best schools are the ones equipped with WiFi. But I think (and hope) before too long we will begin to see a reversal in this trend.

In the meantime I would like to share with you a video. The first part of the video summarizes the dangers of EMFs and the hypocrisy surrounding this subject.

But it's the second part of the video that I would like you to watch closely, which is all about measuring electromagnetic radiation levels. The staggering revelation made in this video is that the school Wi-Fi network in question produces 3 times as much radiation as the cell phone tower.

Anyway don't take my word for it watch the video. The measurements part starts at 7mins 39 secs in (below is the transcript so you follow it more easily):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=FO0AnNHz8vI

EM Radiation Testing at Calais School, Plainfield, VT

“In order to give the school readings some context, let’s first take some background measurements in our local environment.

Background Measurements

Maple Corner Community Center: 12.7 mV/m

Curtis Pond: 14.0 mV/m

East Calais Post Office: 11.1 mV/m

Remote Natural Setting: 11.1 mV/m

In this first clip you can see that we’re outside the Maple Corner Community Center, and meter is showing 12.7 mV/m. In the second clip you can see that we’re at Curtis Pond, and the meter is showing 14.0 mV/m. Here we’re at the East Calais Post Office, and meter is showing 11.1 mV/m.

What do these numbers mean? As a point of reference, here is the measurement taken out in the forest, away from all but the most distance sources of radiation. The meter shows 11.1 mV/m. When you compare the readings from this remote natural setting to the other readings that we took in town, you can see there isn’t that much in terms of background radiation in our local environment.

Calais’s Wi-Fi

Now that we have done the background environmental testing, let’s go to the school. The Calais School Wi-Fi system is set up with 5 routers placed in various locations in the building. There is Wi-Fi access throughout the school, with emphasis in certain areas such as the library, the community learning classroom and the upper grades.

All the children in the school currently use Wi-Fi enabled laptops. In the lower grades, children share a set that is wheeled around in a cart, and children in the upper grade have their own laptop for full time use. Thanks to the help of the director of technology and services, we were able to set up one of the upper grade classrooms for our test.

Classroom Test Results

Center of Room: ~800 mV/m

Direct Vicinity of Laptops: ~1V or 1000 mV/m

Front of Laptop: 2.857 V/m or 2857 mV/m

Here we are at the 5th and 6th grade classroom. The meter is showing 500 mV/m. We’re approaching the router, which is where it’s going to be highest, and as the number goes over 999 mV/m, it’s going to show a new digit, six. That’s means 6000 mV/m right next to the router.

Out in the middle of the room, it’s about 700-800 mV/m. As we approach the laptops, they have a wireless transmitter in them because they need to be able to communicate with the router across the room. You get a stronger signal right next to the transmitter, which is in the back of the screen.

Here you can see close to the front of the laptop where your lap would be or where the student would be sitting. The numbers are several thousands, 2000-3000. So here we have the classroom test results. In the center of the room it was 800mV/M. In the direct vicinity of the laptops, it was around 1000mV/M. In front of the laptop, it was 2857mV/M. Of course I knew that the numbers were going to be high. But I had no idea they were going to be that high.

Microwave Radiation Comparison

Cell Tower: 800-900 mV/m

Classroom: 800-900 mV/m

Laptop: 2857 mV/m

To give you an idea of how high these are, I went and took test readings at a cell phone tower in the area. And the readings show pretty much the same as what’s in the classroom. But nowhere near what the children would be exposed to if they were leaning over their Wi-Fi enabled laptops.

These laptops and the Wi-Fi network produce 3 times the microwave radiation of a cell phone tower. Most of us would never imagine that this would be case, because it doesn’t make sense. It was never explained to us before, and we’d never know about it if it weren’t for a meter. Would you as a parent, even for a second, consider a cell phone tower on the school grounds? How about one in the classroom? Without even knowing it, you consented to placing one in your child’s lap.

Children Are At a Higher Risk

What does this mean in terms of health issues? I don’t even think we know at this point, because this is a new technology. This is the first generation of humans ever to experience direct and constant microwave radiation. What could be the long term health effects if this does turn out to be harmful? A recent study of cell phones found that long term users, meaning those who’d used one for over 10 years, were found to have a much higher cancer rate. What really stood out were the results of those who had started while young. For these individuals, the increase was over 500%.

Children absorb more radiation than adults. Their bodies have higher water content, and this makes them more conductive to the radiation. They are also more vulnerable because their skulls are thinner, and their brains are still growing; their immune systems are still developing, and their cells are still rapidly dividing. When you think about how much radiation exposure this generation would get by being near these wireless devices all day long, it’s really staggering. The accumulative results would greatly exceed anything that has been studied so far. This amounts to a giant experiment that we are doing on something so precious as our children. Why would we consider risking their health for something so frivolous and unnecessary?

What Can You Do?

Fortunately, there is a fairly easy solution which is to hardwire the computers. Hardwiring is safe in that it emits no microwave radiation. The connection speed is much faster, it’s more reliable, and the overall network would be secure. Cables can be routed neatly and cleanly with wire protectors to prevent tripping over the cords. The cost in many cases is negligible. The only issue appears to be losing some of the convenience being cord free. Convenience is not an acceptable reason to risk the health and safety of our children.

If as a parent you decide that these risks are not worth taking, and that our children health and well being is so precious that it should not be a part of an experiment, please let your school know.”

The message is simple: WiFi and its associated electromagnetic radiation has no place in our children’s schools.