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'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?"
"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?
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
because stress NEVER causes any of those symptoms...
" ..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?"
Maybe kids don't like being in school? I found myself more active and alert when at home as opoposed to school when I was attending.
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?
I'll bet dollars to doughnuts it's a mold problem in the school. My guess is stachybotrys. Look It up, the symptoms match perfectly.
Could there be any other explanation? Uh, well of course. Schools are hotbeds of spreading sickness, this is nothing new. For this to really mean something, how about they look at places that have a lot of wifi going on without all the germ spreading. Maybe they could look at dense urban areas that have a lot of wifi yet everyone lives in their own apartment and aren't picking their nose and then getting a drink from the water fountain.
School boards are so.... Yea.
Someone flopped a steamer in the gene pool.
And the parents happily shell out for their kid's iPhones, yet protest school board meetings against WiFi in schools.
The symptoms, which also include memory loss, trouble concentrating, skin rashes, hyperactivity, night sweats and insomnia
Thats funny I read about this as a kid.
'I cannot go to school today, ' Said little Peggy Ann McKay. 'I have the measles and the mumps, A gash, a rash and purple bumps. My mouth is wet, my throat is dry, I'm going blind in my right eye. My tonsils are as big as rocks, I've counted sixteen chicken pox And there's one more-that's seventeen, And don't you think my face looks green? My leg is cut-my eyes are blue- It might be instamatic flu. I cough and sneeze and gasp and choke, I'm sure that my left leg is broke- My hip hurts when I move my chin, My belly button's caving in, My back is wrenched, my ankle's sprained, My 'pendix pains each time it rains. My nose is cold, my toes are numb. I have a sliver in my thumb. My neck is stiff, my voice is weak, I hardly whisper when I speak. My tongue is filling up my mouth, I think my hair is falling out. My elbow's bent, my spine ain't straight, My temperature is one-o-eight. My brain is shrunk, I cannot hear, There is a hole inside my ear. I have a hangnail, and my heart is-what? What's that? What's that you say? You say today is...Saturday? G'bye, I'm going out to play! ' Shel Silverstein
Doctors do Massage in Longview WA now, who knew?
This is so ridiculous. It could be ANYTHING in the environment at these schools. Tainted water, Chinese drywall, toxic mold, contaminated food. The list is endless. But I can tell you one this it's not is the wi-fi.
"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.
How much do you want to bet that these concerned parents are credulous proponents of alternative medicine?
I can imagine their rapt attention at reading how much danger their kids are in, and they trust someone with MD after their name (as if it's not a diploma mill degree anyway) more than an engineer or physicist.
This whole subject is dominated by that folk etymology mentality where something that sounds smart and appeals to an aging housewife's intuition gets spread around at bridge games and finds its way into Reader's Digest or whatever checkout aisle trash they flip through on the toilet these days.
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.
Attention... all grammer nazi"s! Is they're anything; wrong with: my post,
Have they checked the air quality and ventilation of these buildings before ascribing blame to some new technology? Sick school syndrome is real and to blame for many of the symptoms believed to be caused by the offending gamma-powered wi-fi routers.
If it's not WiFi, I would look at substance abuse. Caffeine produces pretty much all of those effects. I imagine young people are more susceptible to the side-effects, and I've read other articles mentioning quite a spike in caffeine poisoning in schools. I know my high school had products like UpShot (pretty much pure caffeine diluted in as little liquid as possible); there are caffeine candy bars, No Doz, any number of energy drinks and coffee. And these are things that are also largely unavailable in the home.
School is just all stress. Stress is what causes most of those symptoms. Parents/Schools Admins don't give a shit because without school they wouldn't be able to do anything. keeping the kids away for 8 hours a day is a necessity for a smooth running society.
The lady who made them do it was feeling a lot better, and didn't have headaches anymore, until she saw me surfing wirelessly using a router located on the floor below. Signal strength was still perfectly fine...
Wi-Fi is the obvious culprit. The spectral evidence is clear and this apparently isn't the first time it's caused problems in children...
http://www.salemweb.com/memorial/chronology.shtml
When I was in elementary school, the only class I could stand was gym class. So, I would stick it out through the day until gym class, after which I would develop serious symptoms that demanded I be sent home. As it so happened, gym almost always was scheduled directly after lunch. I was a good enough actor that my symptoms usually got attention even if they didn't get me sent home, which led to all sorts of theories about why I was mysteriously sick, usually focusing on the food that I ate for lunch... all sorts of allergies and intolerances were postulated, and more than once my parents got furiously angry at various administrators for the food they were serving in the cafeteria. Eventually, somebody realized what was really going on, and it all got quietly dropped.
So in conclusion, kids will pretend to be sick to get out of school, and parents will come up with crazy theories to avoid concluding that's what's going on.
But to be a fair experiment, you'd have to conceal the fact that the wi-fi is turned off from the children. The reason for this is that the most likely cause of all the illness is children feigning it to get of school.
All I want is a secure system where it's easy to do anything I want. Is that too much to ask ~~ Randall Munroe
... puberty!
...otherwise many of their cordless phones would be emitting the same "wifi" signals that wireless routers do.
Perhaps the children are suffering from stress caused by video game, Internet, phone, and texting withdrawals at school.
Via IRC :
Exposed to deadly WiFi radiation, young Peter Parker finds himself
with all the powers of a wireless network device... and all the problems of a
high school student!
Must... route... packets... Gwen Stacy's life... in balance... musn't
let Aunt May's Facebook page... go down.... ARGHHH!
Kids don't want to go to school. I know I didn't when I was a kid and I was even good at school. I was always happy for an excuse to stay home from school. Didn't often work for me, since mom was a teacher and fairly clever, but still.
So kid doesn't want to go to school says "But mom, I feel sick!" and make up some symptoms. Mom says ok and lets them stay home. Mom notices that these symptoms only happen when the kid has been going to school. Never on the weekend, never during summer. Mom goes and looks them up online, rather than asking a doctor, and finds the anti-WiFi nutters. She says "Oh my god, this must be it!" The kid, of course, latches on to it as it means less time in school.
I'm sure it is a combination of these two as well as others (like kids who legitimately feel like crap in school because of stress). It all adds up to a manufactured panic about WiFi.
Hell maybe I should get in on this! In recent years, as WiFi has rolled out all over work, I've had less energy than I used to. I am tired easier, and seem to just be over all a bit slower than I was. Not drastic, but noticeable. Must be the WiFi... ...
or maybe the fact that I'm 30, and have gained weight. Nah, couldn't be that, must be the WiFi.
Exactly. I, for one, am sick and tired of the 'blame everybody but the self' mentality that pervades society. It creeps up more and more everyday. I don't know how the Canadian legal system works, but wouldn't the burden of proof lie with the parents? Can they cite one study, just one fracking conclusive study that proves that it is these routers and acess points causing the children, oh the poor freaking children's ailments? Seriously. Show me one study where it has been positively shown that signals that fall in the range of the wifi consortium jurisdiction are causing people to get sick. Prove it. Prove it. Prove it. Evidence, or GTFO.
And people wonder why education gets worse. These damn parents are so sue happy, they just attack attack attack the schools every damn opportunity that presents itself. So the schools become so hamstrung in bureaucratic idiocy that they are afraid to do anything because some snot-nose little johnny's parents might sue.
This. Two things. Taking personal responsibility and the scientific method. The sooner society actually adopts these two solid mentalities, the better off we all will be. Until then this world will continue to be run amok by victimized-its-not-my-fault-blame-the-world-can-i-get-some-money-too asshats.
End rant.
'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
We like to make fun of stupid people.
Gee, that sounds just like the side effects of Riddlin.
It's not like we eat solid foods which contain all kinds of minerals.
A lot of people believe that EM spectrum radiation is harmful in many different ways.
We can either fight them on every front they raise or we can agree with them that there MIGHT be such a danger. People have believed this since the introduction of electricity, so thinking that someone we are going to convince these people they are wrong just isn't going to happen. It has nothing to do with ignorance or some peculiar regligious belief - it is just a belief in something beyond current knowledge.
Besides, how the heck does anyone really know what we don't know yet? The real answer is nobody knows. It is unlikley, even incredibly unlikely, but there is no way to convince people that it couldn't be happening.
We aren't talking about WiFi routers alone. Every source of EM radiation is suspect, down to the level of detectability. If it can be detected, then it is possible that it is having some kind of unknown effect. Probable? No. But just barely possible. And it doesn't necessarily have to affect everyone, just those that are somehow sensitive.
What needs to be understood is until this is dealt with on a human (not just scientific probability) level, it is going to continue to prevent construction of EM-emitting objects. Like power transmission lines. And cell towers. And there will be complaints about every device like a WiFi router.
How would such proof be managed? I don't know. But I do know that fighting individual battles over Wifi routers, cell towers, radio stations, power lines and every other sort of EM-emitting device is pointless. The non-believing majority will lose out to the minority that believes. As Mr. Obama said just recently, we are a country of religious freedom and it would be wrong to unfairly oppress a religious minority that believes WiFi is harmful. At least without absolute proof that they are wrong.
Being one of the techies in my 34 household community, I was asked by a couple of member to look into the potential dangers of WiFi. It was actually pretty interesting.
Spoiler: In the end I recommended we do very little to change our WiFi network.
For those interested in a more detailed exploration of the topic than a variant of the trite "Oh those rascally kids... always trying to get out of school" dismissal of the idea, there's a great set of research on the potential dangers of WiFi and similar EMF available through the bioinitative (google it). Sadly, what once was a free site now charges $2 (with the weak excuse that this is to cover costs.... in which case a $0.05 charge per user would likely do).
The report gave summaries of several hundred experiments to determine potential risks from a variety of signals ranging across the EM spectrum. Quite a few of the conclusions gave good grounds for further research.
The problem is that most of these studies are still in the early stages - hundreds of experiments into different aspects of the potential dangers, with very little duplication as of yet. It may turn out that there is legitimate cause for concern, but at present it all comes down to how one uses the precautionary principle.
I think the bottom line is that when we listen carefully to such concerns, do the research, and use a reasonably scientific approach, the results are better than a pat answer.
Those who jump on the "Someone says WiFi must be dangerous so it clearly IS" bandwagon are no more or less ignorant or reasoning in their approach than those jumping on the "I've never heard of WiFi being dangerous and its handy, so clearly these people are crazy" bandwagon.
Those claiming kids faking sickness to get out of school is nothing new might want to find out:
- Is there a spike in the reported symptoms? (after all... kids can fake the flu anytime)
- Does the spike coincide with a change in the wifeless, or with a change in the wireless being known about by the kids... or with a spike once the first kid went home sick?
It could be kids playing hookie. It could be other environmental factors. It could be a placebo effect (particularly with all the hype). But dismissing it off the bat is no more sensible than refusing to look through Galileo's telescope because you already KNOW there can't be any moons there....
Or in knowing a historical event happened because some folks said it did - http://bedejournal.blogspot.com/2006/11/who-refused-to-look-through-galileos.html
I can't speak for all schools, but my old middle school had horrible water. I actually did a side-by-side microscope comparison of fresh-from-the-tap to mudwater, and the school had more bacteria. Less sediment, but still more bacteria.
First time a teacher regretted me actually doing my homework.
It is the disgustingly toxic school food, pesticides, lead paint, asbestos, or poor treatment by faculty that cause these symptoms. Or the water that tastes like piss out of drinking fountains, or the treatment like prisoners for no reason. Enough to drive anyone to experience psychosomatic effects and lose all motivation and drive to live.
They say all children profile like psychopaths before they leave high school. I can tell you why, anyone living in the bullshit environment forced unto people until they are legally an adult will drive you fucking nuts. Did that maybe ever occur to anyone? That metal detectors, fully armed sherifs and security guards authorized to use force every 10 feet? Or maybe it is the getting thrown in a cold dark room for a week because you got beaten up, and zero tolerance says that counts as a violent offence? Maybe being forced to memorize out of context information out of logical order and without being taught its applications or purpose? Maybe if schools actually treated students like people, instead of monsters, maybe if schools taught information in a logical order, and taught it, instead of forcing meaningless memorization, maybe, if schools actually provided half way decent meals for the price, or water that didn't make your stomach hurt, or didn't make you dress in an oddly specific arbitrary fashion. Maybe then it wouldn't be such fucking hell. Maybe then the children would actually be able to think, feel, and learn. But like that will ever happen.
Where is the mod rating for "scary"? Also,
wait till we turn the equipment on!
This has actually happened (IIRC some 10 years ago in Germany, but I can't find a reference on the web). A GSM base station was put up somewhere, and people immediately began to get sick (headaches, insomnia etc.). When people started demanding to remove it, it turned out that only the tower had been erected, but the radio equipment hadn't even been installed yet. That's the power of the mind...
Say out loud: I'm an Aspie and I'm somewhat proud, I guess. Uh. Can I write an email in all caps instead? Hm...
No the creases are good, they help scatter the mind control waves instead of reflecting a strong return signal, which will be picked up by the mind control satellites, then the Illuminati will know you're wearing a tinfoil hat and poison your water supply with mind-control nanites instead, or send the grays to abduct you and install an implant if you already run your water through an anti-nanite system.
So remember, creases GOOD, right angles and flat/curved surfaces BAD.
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel