Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

GSM Association Slams Euro Call For Ban On Wireless In School

Posted by Soulskill on from the don't-cloud-this-issue-with-facts dept.

jhernik writes "The ongoing debate over the supposed dangers posed by mobile phone usage and wireless signals has exploded once again. An influential European committee has called for a ban on mobile phones and Wi-Fi networks in schools – the GSM Association has denounced the report as an 'unbalanced political assessment, not a scientific report.' The report made its recommendation to reduce mobile and wireless use in schools, despite admitting that there is a lack of clear scientific and clinical proof. However, it said the lack of proof was reason enough to restrict use, just in case, comparing mobile phone radiation to other things whose dangers were once unknown, such as asbestos, leaded petrol and tobacco."

7 of 271 comments (clear)

  1. Can we get some peer review? by blair1q · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So we have politicians making a political point with "data", and an industry lobby making a political point with "data", and nobody unconnected to the politics and the money doing any analysis on the other parties "data".

    How about someone comes up with something scientifically significant without proving to be in bed with one side or the other?

  2. Let's ban school sports then by Ken+Hall · · Score: 4, Insightful

    A high school football player just last week died during practice. MANY kids are hurt doing team sports in schools. There's a KNOWN, DEFINITE health threat, proven beyond a shadow of a doubt!

    If they can ban stuff based on the vague possibility of a problem, why not ban what is PROVEN to be one!

  3. Re:Interphone anybody? by c0lo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Except the "dangers" of cell phone radiation aren't unknown. Acording to the largest, longest, and most methodologically sound study on the matter, there is no elevated risk of cancer due to cell phone radiation.

    http://www.rfcom.ca/programs/interphone.shtml

    perhaps they haven't read the report.

    They read it all right and discarded it... doesn't match with their set of beliefs.

    --
    Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
  4. Re:Nice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I think "u" should head back to highschool English.

  5. How about: Don't need cellphones/wifi in school by s-whs · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Who gives a damn about peer review!

    There is no need for cellphones in school. Parents want to contact a kid: Call the school. kids want internet: use internet via wires.

    Therefore, banning wireless when there is no (or not enough) data to be certain of anything, is a good precaution.

    1. Re:How about: Don't need cellphones/wifi in school by Missing.Matter · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I don't know how I went through 12 years of schooling without a cell phone or wifi and never even considered this possibility!

    2. Re:How about: Don't need cellphones/wifi in school by caitsith01 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Yeah. There's an emergency and a relative is dying. Those few minutes between the school getting the call and the kid actually being able to get to the phone to respond to the call could mean the difference between the relative seeing the kid before he/she dies.

      Screw you, stop thinking of yourself and "the rules."

      And of course, everyone before 1997 had their lives ruined by the absence of instant notification of every significant event in their lives... sigh.

      --
      Read Pynchon.