Ontario Parents Say School Wi-Fi Networks Make Kids Sick

August 17, 2010

by Caleb — Aug 16th 2010 at 2:25PM

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ShareParents in the town of Barrie, Ontario, Canada, want their school district

to disable its Wi-Fi network because, they claim, it's making their kids sick.

According to a report by The Canadian Press, parents say that, after the

district went wireless, kids from 14 different schools displayed symptoms --

including headaches, dizziness, nausea, faster heart rates, memory loss, trouble

concentrating, skin rashes, hyperactivity, night sweats and insomnia. Rodney

Palmer and other members of the Simcoe County Safe School Committee say the kids

don't display these symptoms at home. " I'm not saying it's because of the Wi-Fi

because we don't know yet, but I've pretty much eliminated every other possible

source, " Palmer told the Press.

The concerned parents volunteered to pay any costs the schools might incur by

going back to a wired network, but the school board ignored this proposal. Now

it appears some parents, like Palmer, might send their kids to other schools or

home school them because of this bizarre rash of illness.

We've been skeptical, at best, of claims regarding Wi-Fi's harm, simply because

electromagnetic sensitivity is a dubious disease, though some studies have shown

links between cell phone and Wi-Fi radiation. Yet, in an interview with the CBC,

former Harvard research consultant e said, " We have statistics that

show that children, especially young children, are going to absorb much more

radiation than older children and adults because of their thinner skulls and

because the size of their brains more closely approximates the size of the

wavelength being deployed. " Any parents that buy into this, of course, would

have to switch off microwaves, cell phones and cable boxes, and remove their

children from any airports or coffee shops (whe re wireless runs rampant).

This is not to suggest that the switch to Wi-Fi isn't going to interfere with

small brains and school kids, but Palmer's claim that he's " eliminated " all

possible culprits is certainly hyperbole. We have to wonder. Is it really so

strange that kids are sicker during school days than on the weekends? [From: CBC

News, via: Slashdot]

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