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UK Schools Bans WiFi Due To Health Concerns

Mantrid42 writes "Schools in the UK are getting rid of their WiFi network, citing health concerns from parents and teachers. The wireless emanations, parents fear, may be the root cause of a host of problems from simple fatigue to the possibility of cancer. A few scientists think younger humans may be more vulnerable to the transmissions, because of thinner skulls. From the article: "Vivienne Baron, who is bringing up Sebastian, her ten-year-old grandson, said: 'I did not want Sebastian exposed to a wireless computer network at school. No real evidence has been produced to prove that this new technology is safe in the long term. Until it is, I think we should take a precautionary approach and use cabled systems.'"

6 of 535 comments (clear)

  1. Come on.... by JackieBrown · · Score: 5, Insightful

    What doesn't cause cancer?

  2. Re:ban wifi? what about other technologies? by elysiuan · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I hope these kids don't have televisions, wireless phones, or god forbid cellphones. I also, for the sake of the CHILDREN, hope they don't go outside ever where they will be bombarded by RADIATION from a gigantic nuclear furnace! The horror!

    I would say they should stay indoors but then they are still susceptible to all those cosmic rays!

    Obviously, the only solution is to move everybody to New Zion right above the Earth's core.

    Give me a break, this kind of thinking is why 3 year olds die from food posioning every year because its a political impossibility to get irradiated meat on shelves sans a gigantic radiation symbol.

    Its ill-informed knee-jerk thinking of the most insipid kind.

  3. Ridiculous by FlyByPC · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Sounds like the grandmother needs the schooling at least as much as the kids. I suggest starting with a list of RF-producing devices, then move on to the inverse square law...

    --
    Paleotechnologist and connoisseur of pretty shiny things.
  4. Re:wow by Anonymous+Brave+Guy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Fortunately, us stoopid Brits do understand enough statistics to know that drawing conclusions about the whole population from a sample of one is unlikely to give reliable results. :-)

    --
    If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
  5. Re:ban wifi? what about other technologies? by Rolo+Tomasi · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "The masses have never thirsted after truth. They turn aside from evidence that is not to their taste, preferring to deify error, if error seduce them. Whoever can supply them with illusions is easily their master; whoever attempts to destroy their illusions is always their victim."

    --
    Did you know you can fertilize your lawn with used motor oil?
  6. Re:ban wifi? what about other technologies? by Akaihiryuu · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The solution is to try to teach people exactly what radiation is, what its effects are, and what causes it. People also need to understand that we are *constantly* exposed to radiation from any number of different natural background sources. People also need to understand that exposing something (aka meat) to radiation does not make it radioactive or dangerous in any way (well, unless it gets contaminated by a radioactive material, but that's about as likely to happen in a meat plant as getting contamination from a smoke detector in your house). If they understood that irradiating meat isn't much different from putting it in a microwave, then maybe the irrational fear would go away...people just fear what they don't understand. Understanding the difference between particle and electromagnetic radiation would be a start. Oh noes, light is electromagnetic radiation, it's just like gamma rays only lower frequency! The horror! *runs and hides in the dark basement* Wait, as another poster pointed out, that's not even safe, there might be radon there!