'Wi-Fi Illness' Spreads To Ontario Public Schools

An anonymous reader writes "Readers of Slashdot might be familiar with Lakehead University's ban on WiFi routers a few years ago in Thunder Bay, Ontario because of 'health concerns,' a policy apparently still in effect. Now it seems a group of concerned parents in a number of communities in Ontario have petitioned the local school boards over similar concerns at public schools, where their kids are apparently experiencing 'headaches to dizziness and nausea and even racing heart rates' — symptoms that appear only when they are in school on weekdays, not on weekends at home. '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 ...' Besides Wi-Fi signals, could there possibly be any other logical explanation for kids having more symptoms of illness on school days than at home on weekends or in the summer?"

Comments

Mod the summary funny

[Overzeetop]

"Besides Wi-Fi signals, could there possibly be any other logical explanation for kids having more symptoms of illness on school days than at home on weekends or in the summer?"

Um, being in school doesn't count as a reason?

Re:Mod the summary funny

[Anonymous Coward]

Unfortunately it overshadows a real problem. I felt crippling anxiety in school for 10 years (dropped out when I was old enough) and it was a waste of a good childhood. There are real reasons kids can feel this way. It doesn't have to be excuses, even if that was the easy thing to blame my problems on.

Of course WiFi didn't exist back then so it wasn't that, but I can understand how kids would feel awful at school and fine at home.

School can be a very uncomfortable place to be in, and an almost impossible place to learn in.

Re:Mod the summary funny

[AK Marc]

As long as you use your hatred of "schooling" to fix it, not sabotage it, then I agree with you.

School is bad, but better than the alternative. So rather than using its problems as a reason to destroy it, its problems should be addressed to improve it.

Re:Mod the summary funny

[daveime]

Knowing what I know now, I can see all kinds of ways that I could have put that time to better use

Had you spent your time in Information Technology 101 class better, you'd have know you don't need to sign or initial posts on message boards when your name is clearly displayed at the top.

But hey, we'll let it slide ... no matter how much it irritates the fuck out of us.

Re:Mod the summary funny

[dgatwood]

Too much water is bad for you, period. See also water intoxication. See, there, for all you who think alcohol is evil, you can get drunk on water, too.

Distilled water is worse as a thirst quencher after heavy exercise because it contains no electrolytes to replenish what you lost in sweat. No big deal, as most of us get way too much salt in the rest of our diets anyway, but it is worth noting in case you are one of the three people on Earth who doesn't over-salt everything.

As for the taste, it depends on what you're comparing it against. There's not a huge difference between well-filtered water (e.g. Aquafina) and distilled water (e.g. the grocery store jugs). There is, however, a huge difference between unfiltered or coarsely filtered water and distilled water. For example, to me, Arrowhead water tastes noticeably worse than more filtered brands, presumably because of the dissolved minerals. Other people prefer that taste. And there are many varieties that are somewhere in the middle. For example, Dasani uses filtration and then adds certain minerals back in. SmartWater distills the water and then adds salts back in. And so on. Everybody has their own preference, and as far as health goes, it makes little difference given that the vast majority of the minerals you consume come from the foods you eat rather than from the water you drink or cook foods in.

Re:Mod the summary funny

[shermo]

Other than eating Tuna in a can, my exposure to fish has been extremely limited in my lifetime. I don't eat fish or seafood, I don't eat Sushi, I don't live near the coast.

And yet 'in an effort to lose weight' you went on a tuna based diet, without consulting a doctor. To reiterate you'd never eaten seafood, your family doesn't eat seafood, your friends don't eat seafood, and yet you were willing to switch to a seafood based diet on a whim. Yeah I've made some assumptions, but given what you've told us they're probably not far off.

I'm somewhat sympathetic to the idea that you weren't able to afford a doctor (strange country!). But trying out a fad diet (on whose recommendation?) without getting any more information than the necessarily limited amount present on a label seems a little rash. It doesn't deserve getting called an idiot over, but it's not the smartest move.

WiFi at home?

[leenks]

Don't people in Canada have WiFi at home? Surely if the illness was WiFi related they'd be suffering at home, in cities, on planes, or any other populated place?

GODDAMN IPHONES???

[Bananatree3]

And the parents happily shell out for their kid's iPhones, yet protest school board meetings against WiFi in schools.

Yes

[Sycraft-fu]

"Besides Wi-Fi signals, could there possibly be any other logical explanation for kids having more symptoms of illness on school days than at home on weekends or in the summer?"

Yes, it is called "Believing shit that isn't real." Our minds can have powerful effects on our bodies and in particular on how we feel, since ultimately the mind is what does the feeling. So people believe that something causes a given set of symptoms, thus they experience those symptoms.

Happens all the time with the WiFi types. People have been up on the evils of "radiation" for a long time, WiFi is just their newest target.

Personally what I think the school needs to do is this: Tell people "Ok, for the next two weeks we are shutting down WiFi, you let us know if you get any better." However don't actually shut it off. Have the APs stop broadcasting SIDs and accepting connections, but leave the radios broadcasting at full power. Then after that say "Ok we are turning back on now, in a test mode, no data for two weeks. tell us if you feel worse." At this point shut the APs down completely.

At the end, when people say that during the "off" time they were fine and during the "on" time the problems came back, you get to reveal the test results and say STFU.

Seriously, if there is something to this WiFi thing how come we can't get any laboratory results on it? The answer to that is because there is nothing to it, it is all in the heads of the people who allegedly have the problems.

Whats wrong with the children?

[Kitkoan]

My guess, it's the parents. The parents want the children to be sick and press/force it upon the children to be sick. Its a common incident in lawsuits.

Parent: "Its ok, just tell me that your getting sick from the stuff at school. You don't need to hide it, just tell me."

Child: "But I'm fine, nothings wrong."

Parent: "Please, you shouldn't bottle these things up. Just tell me that its making you sick and I'll make it stop. Now please, don't hide these things from me."

Child: "But there really isn't anything wrong."

Parent: "Now we've talked about this, you don't need to keep secrets from me. Just tell me its making you sick because I know it is. So just be honest and go ahead and tell me its making you sick and then we can go have ice cream. And then we can talk to everyone about this because they will like to hear what you have to say."

Child after hearing they will get a reward and lots of positive attention for agreeing to claim it makes them sick: "Yes mommy, it makes me feel really ill and sick. Can we have that ice cream now?"

Keep instilling that its making them sick after a while mind over matter will happen and you'll have a child with a minor form of hypochondria that will claim its the school since they are getting rewards for it and lots of positive attention, the two things most children want it abundance.

Re:It's Black Mold

[cptdondo]

Mold my butt. If the kids are getting sick from radio waves, take away their cell phones. That'll cure'm quick!

Re:It's Black Mold

[Smidge204]

If that were the case, the teachers and staff - who are exposed a lot more - would be getting symptoms too.

Here's a really easy test: Turn off all the wireless routers in the building and keep it a secret from the children and parents as best you can.

$5 says nothing will change.
=Smidge=

Re:It's Black Mold

[bcmm]

"Sounds like x, I read that it matches the symptoms perfectly" is exactly what produced this crap in the first place.

No it isn't. The difference is in whether x is a real thing or not.