geeogree
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http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/100815/national/wi_fi_kids_health

I came across this today.... interesting article to read. Obviously not based on a scientific study but the article says the anecdotal evidence is fairly strong that wifi is making their kids sick while at school and while at home (with no wifi) the symptoms go away. No idea if it's true or not.... but it's interesting. I don't if the effects of wifi have been studied.... I don't know if we can say conclusively whether or not there might be adverse effects on kids from this sort of technology being used all day every day while they are at school.

I personally hope this is studied further and some decision is made as to whether or not this is causing a problem.

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play4fun
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Hmmm...this is interesting...although I wonder why we would not see news like this from other places, but just from this school district? I mean, you have many places that have wi-fi installed and some people do go to these places occasionally. At my college, I don't use wired connection, only wireless, and there are built in wifi all around campus, including our dorms. It could be something from the construction of Wi-Fi in that elementary...or it could be wifi's affect on kids, idk.

But with WIFI becoming more and more prominent, we might see more of these type of news if it does have an affect.

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tRIUNE
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Well to state the obvious (not scientifically), I think it's a huge metaphor alluding to human nature.

They're just, like everything else, trying to pin a conclusion to the reason behind kids' mental instability.

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That's interesting... although I think it has to be something to do with the school itself. There's Wi-Fi almost everywhere now: fast food restaurants, schools, and the like, and this is the only time we hear of supposed adverse affects.
Definitely something to watch though.

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geeogree
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yeah, I'm not suggesting it's 100% true.... but I figured with our group of members this sort of a story would be of interest.

My main guess as to why the school wifi might be "worse" than other places is the constant contact with it while at school. You don't spend 8 hours at most other places that have wifi.... plus the wifi at a school would require multiple routers to maintain a solid network throughout the school which might be saturating the area. Who knows....

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The symptoms sound interesting but I'd like to see real hard evidence.

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This might have something to it. If people can get cancer from living under the power lines, who is to say all these wireless signals couldn't have a significant impact on health as well? Then again, if this is a relatively localized problem, it could easily be caused by something else.

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Anything with radiation can cause health problems. Some more than others of course.

In all honesty, I expect Cellphones more than WiFi...

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Health concerns of WiFi have been researched for a least 10 years now with no conclusive evidence, but I think it is possible even if it operates at much lower power levels than cell phones.

Dennis Eaton, the chairman of the Wi-Fi Alliance (2003) says, "The distance from the transmitter reduces geometrically the amount of radiation that reaches the user: cell phones are often right up against heads while Wi-Fi access points are often many feet or yards away."

I think it's possible that it's a conspiratorial issue in that most of the research there is funded by the industry, and whenever anyone turns up anything negative, they get fired or blocked so the industry can claim the research cannot be replicated.

In order for a health effect to be established it must mean it has been repeated in a number of laboratories using very good study techniques. But it's still significant that children’s skulls are thinner and still forming and tests have shown they absorb more radiation than adults.

---

(last edited by tRIUNE on 08-16-10 03:13 PM)

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I don't think it's SO true. I, personally, stay at max half a day in the PCand nothing serious happens to me. But I believe that excessive time on Internet could cause injuries to someone.
...and what about ME?

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I think it's more likely that there is something wrong with the ventilation system at the school (mold or such), the fluorescent lights (I had some problems with them for a while), or the fact that they are stuck in a room all day with nothing to do but concentrate their eyes on small print or computer screens. I'm not going to rule out wifi but I've been living with it for a while now, along with my younger brother and grandparents, and have seen no ill effects on any of us from it but it's not going to be as strong as the ones at a school so I don't know.

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Zamiel : I agree that there is likely another cause, but the effects have been noticed among 14 different schools in the same area. Hard to blame mold or something like that with 14 schools.

And the other thing is that if the entire school is wireless then the kids can't get away from it unless they go outside and in Canada during the winter you don't do that often . It might also be the brand they purchased. Same area would be same school board so they probably got a deal for the ones they bought.


Either way this warrants investigation. Hopefully the results will get more media time than the story did.

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Well, I was just about to go off on a B.S. rant, but after reading to where it said WiFi uses microwave energy I stopped myself (from possibly looking like an idiot ¬_¬). I don't know if WiFi signals are actually affecting those kids, but I want to say it doesn't. I find it hard to believe that's the causes. I've only read one story about someone being hyper-sensitive to radio, internet, etc. signals to the point the effects can be seen, and he literally lives out in the middle of nowhere.

I never heard about microwave energy being used for WiFi, but then again I never looked into it. If it wasn't for that fact (or any other smaller wavelength) I would have definitely called them out on that story as being a load of crap. I know microwaves can cause a little harm in people, but I just don't see WiFi doing it.

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I think it's possible, but I don't think that it would have a massive effect on kids in general. It's just like the radio, and I don't think it's a biggie.

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It's possible, but kids are around WiFi all the time, at home, at restaurants, at school, so I just think it's stress from being at school causing it. This was all over the news, and I know it's fake, because we're okay at home and at other places,

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I definitely don't think it's Wi-Fi making kids sick. I'm near Wi-fi all the time, same with my brothers, and I/we don't get sick much. I think it's just a bunch of kids trying to get away from school, and the staff and parents haven't realized that yet. I'm really wondering how they got the idea of Wi-Fi being affective on us/them. For the most part, I think these people need to take another look and see if they have Black Ops at the kids who are getting sick house's .

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The idea of "they are sick at school but when they are home they are fine", sounds like something I would have come up with when I faked sick to get out of school. Although I don't doubt the possiblity that this could happen, there are all kinds of electromagnetic waves around us all the time, making Wi-fi waves no different than anything else we do everyday.

Cyro Xero : I belive that for most, if not all waves that transfer information (like the telephone, television, etc.) all use microwaves to transmit.

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This truthfully sounds too ludicrous to be true. Wi-Fi making kids sick? Seriously?

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If the waves are strong enough, then it can affect thing. It's like UV rays- you only get sun burnt if the waves strong enough.

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