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Ontario School Bans Wi-Fi
St. Vincent Euphrasia elementary school in Meaford, Ont. is the latest Canadian school to decide to save its students from the harmful effects of Wi-Fi by banning it. Schools from universities on down have a history of banning Wi-Fi in Ontario. As usual, health officials and know-it-all scientists have called the move ridiculous. Health Canada has released a statement saying, "Wi-Fi is the second most prevalent form of wireless technology next to cell phones. It is widely used across Canada in schools, offices, coffee shops, personal dwellings, as well as countless other locations. Health Canada continues to reassure Canadians that the radiofrequency energy emitted from Wi-Fi equipment is extremely low and is not associated with any health problems."
This may, in fact, be a rational decision by the school's administration. While the health dangers due to wifi may not be real, the (often irrational) fear that some people (e.g. parents) have of wifi is, unfortunately, very real. If enough people are sufficiently afraid, and their fear is causing a great deal of difficulty, banning wifi may be the most straightforward solution, especially if wifi isn't mission-critical for that particular school.
As usual, Health Canada gets it wrong.
It's not that the signal is low energy, it's that the radiation is not at a frequency that can do any damage.
They could boost the power to the point where it boiled the water in your cells. That's what it would take to do damage, because the wavelength is too long to break chemical bonds. That's the neat thing about quantum mechanics; if one photon can't do any damage, neither can a thousand photons.
I'm a Programmer. That's one level above Software Engineer and one level below Engineer.
While the health argument is nonsense, there are a lot of very good reasons to ban wifi in public schools. If the school doesn't have a laptop policy then the students probably shouldn't use them, too much to go wrong, both on a support end and on the student effectively using the tools side of things. I went to both public and highschool in ontario, admittedly, quite a few years ago, but there wasn't really any time except maybe lunch that we would have had anywhere suitable to want a wifi connection anyway. You were either in class, and supposed to be paying attention to the front of the room, or on your way home. And if you actually needed internet access for something legitimate, well there were lots of computers around you had access to. Installing and running a wifi network if it doesn't fit with how the school operates seems unnecessary.
This school in question only goes to grade 6 it looks like. I sort of think that 10-11 year olds probably shouldn't have laptops at school, or smartphones or any of the other modern wifi connected gadgets which sap attention and productivity from the rest of us. They aren't really ready for that responsibility, both in value of stuff or in time management. Highschool might be different, but in public school you get a couple of 15 minute breaks, and some time at lunch, otherwise you aren't supposed to be there. In grade six they're still learning to measure angles with protractors and learning to guess the meanings of words they don't know (source: http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/curriculum/elementary/grade6.html) . Looking up angle on wikipedia and finding formal definitions using trig functions seems like it's probably going to do more harm than good. Even if you want to argue a grade 6 kid might be ok with a laptop, grade 4 and 5 are pretty young to be using wireless devices on their own initiative.
On top of all that you get into issues of what has access to the network, and how do you enforce that policy, and if you're going to provide access how do you make it fair for students without the financial means to get laptops etc.
Like I say, in a school that only goes to grade 6 it's a bit different than the usual primary schools that go to grade 8 or a highschool or the like. 8 and 9 year old kids are still learning to write on lined paper, they aren't really ready for constant internet access, and by the time they are, they aren't at this school anyway.
iBurst Microwave tower in Craigavon link
Step 1: iBurst erects broadband microwave tower in community.
Step 2: Community forms a 'Task Force' for hearings on health complaints "several rash cases were presented in person and by photo... Headaches, nausea, tinnitus, dry burning itchy skins, gastric imbalances and totally disrupted sleep patterns, especially with some of the children". Residents give testimony that symptoms only subside when they leave the area of the tower, and symptoms return when they return to their homes around the tower.
Step 3: iBurst attends meeting and listens to documented health complaints with great interest, and responds Oh by the way, we turned the tower off more than 6 weeks ago. Idiots.
Find the witch! Burn the witch!
Find the witch! Burn the witch!
Burn the witch! Burn the witch! Burn the witch!
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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
Post Hoc Ergo Propter Hoc is not the basis of good medicine. It just means time passed and you got better.
Except that my condition was not static when I went to see my doctor. It was deteriorating. And it continued to deteriorate despite the treatment. The doctors only response was to suggest that since my problem was upsetting me, I should take anti-depressants and find a new job that didn't require physical activity.
Chiropractic treatments produced limited immediate relief, and gradual long-term improvement. At this point, I can tell when I need to go back for a check up (a few times year), and I get predictable relief of symptoms when I do. More importantly, the insight gained from working the chiropractor has helped me develop exercises that provide me with immediate relief without having to see a medical professional at all.
Actually, there's these things called "physics" and "biology". When you understand them, you are able to demonstrate that "electrosensitives" are full of shit.
Or should I get just as much consideration for a theory that orange light causes cancer? The effect is below what we can measure with our current methodology, but it exists! We must ban all orange!
I would have to disagree with that. Based on my own experience I know that chiropractors are not snake oil.
Last time my lower back acted up I was in so much pain I couldn't even stand without a bunch of pain meds and my spine was so twisted due to the muscle tension that I looked "bent" as it was described to me by my family. The "traditional" doctors where all on about muscle relaxers, meds and PT. The x-ray didn't show anything other than misalignment of the spine. They said if it didn't improve in a week they would consider some more tests, maybe an MRI eventually.
After a week of no improvement, pain and lack of sleep, I went to a chiropractor to see what he could do. After 15 minutes checking my lower back he started checking my neck, I was thinking WTF does my neck have to do with it? After about 5-10 minutes of working with some ligaments or such in my neck he gave it a twist and a push. The resulting crack sounded like a broom handle snapping.
When I stood up my back was better, not perfect, it was still sore but I could stand without pain and even bend over a little before it started hurting. My spine wasn't twisted and after a few days I was fine.
The chiropractor I went to caught something that didn't show up on the x-rays. And the doctor hadn't even considered the problem wasn't in the lower back at all. The chiropractor told me he thought the sheath covering my spinal cord had been torqued by my poor posture sitting at work and my lower back had twisted to try and compensate for it. That was what caused the muscles to lock up when I over worked one group of them. When I told my "traditional" doctor about that he made some non-committal noises about how there had been nothing in the x-rays to indicate something like that.
I have a new "traditional" doctor (didn't like his general attitude anyway) and now I get a spinal check up from my chiro every month or so.
This is of course my story and YMMV. You can claim it was all in my head if you like and your entitled to your opinion. While it is true that some chiropractors are complete wack jobs but others know what they are doing and can really help in some cases.