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Massachusetts Boarding School Sued Over Wi-Fi Sickness

alphadogg writes: The parents of an anonymous student at the Fay School in Southborough, Mass., allege that the Wi-Fi at the institution is making their child sick, according to a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court earlier this month (PDF). The child, identified only as "G" in court documents, is said to suffer from electromagnetic hypersensitivity syndrome. The radio waves emitted by the school's Wi-Fi routers cause G serious discomfort and physical harm, according to the suit. "After being continually denied access to the school in order to test their student's classroom, and having their request that all classrooms in which their child is present have the WiFi network replaced with a hard-wired Ethernet denied, the parents sued under the Americans with Disabilities Act."

15 of 588 comments (clear)

  1. Re:What does Science have to say about this? by fredgiblet · · Score: 5, Informative

    As far as I've heard so far there's been no proof to back it up.

  2. Re:Blind test. by Nutria · · Score: 4, Informative
    --
    "I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
  3. Re:What does Science have to say about this? by AK+Marc · · Score: 4, Informative

    A mental illness is still an illness. So the ADA would still apply.

  4. Re:What does Science have to say about this? by tsnow · · Score: 3, Informative

    In America, all you need is a gut feeling and a lawyer, and you can litigate anything!

  5. Re:What does Science have to say about this? by macraig · · Score: 3, Informative

    That only works if he doesn't know that he's sitting in a Faraday cage. Otherwise the kid would simply subconsciously - or consciously - fake symptoms just to fulfill the prophesy declared by his parents. He can't know the Faraday cage is there, else you'd never be able to rule out WiFi RF and narrow it to "something [else] environmental".

    So... give him an astronaut suit to wear for a day and tell him it's a reward for good grades or something.

  6. Re:commentsubjectsaredumb by Nutria · · Score: 5, Informative

    Even "better":
    http://drhubbuch.com/

    Her interest in health and assisting her patients take control of their own health began with her work in the Womenâ(TM)s Self Help Health Movement.

    Even more better than better...

    Dr. Hubbuch is a member of the American Academy of Environmental Medicine

    But the AAEM is not recognized by the American Board of Medical Specialties, and is mentioned in Quackwatch.
    http://www.abms.org/member-boa...
    http://www.quackwatch.org/04Co...

    --
    "I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
  7. Re:What does Science have to say about this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    LMGTFY: http://www.who.int/peh-emf/publications/facts/fs296/en/

  8. Re:What does Science have to say about this? by Dunbal · · Score: 3, Informative

    There is proof however that people who claim to have "electromagnetic hypersensitivity" mysteriously cannot explain why they can get "sick" even when the source of electromagnetic radiation is turned off. Apparently the mere sight of a router/electrical transformer/pylon is enough to make them "sick".

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    Seven puppies were harmed during the making of this post.
  9. Re:What does Science have to say about this? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    It's exactly what double blind means. You don't tell the subjects whether they're in the active, placebo, or control groups.

  10. MIT WIFI Study by arthurpaliden · · Score: 3, Informative

    There was an MIT under grad psychology study done a few years ago on the Effects of WiFi on people with WiFi sensitivity. They had a WiFi generator that had antennas, dials and blinking lights. The generator was always positioned behind the test subjects so they could not directly see if it was on or off. However, there were enough reflective surfaces on the opposing wall so the the subject could tell when it was on or off. When the generator was brought in the room and and turned on the subjects felt the effects. When it was turned off and or removed from the room the subjects felt much better.

    The machine did nothing.

    The ceiling of the room was loaded with active WiFi base stations that were on all the time during the tests yet the subjects only reacted when the fake WiFi generator was turned on and in the room.

  11. Re:What does Science have to say about this? by Firethorn · · Score: 3, Informative

    Well, here's one - Note "sham".
    and another.

    The study I'm remembering was slightly different, but I'm being drowned out by different studies.

    --
    I don't read AC A human right
  12. Re:What does Science have to say about this? by Firethorn · · Score: 5, Informative

    I disagree. There is no reason at all to show lights if what you are really testing is sensitivity to radio signals.

    As the famous 'experiment' down in South Africa showed, where the cell phone tower operators shut the tower off six weeks before a meeting about turning the tower off, where people were STILL expressing the same symptoms, how getting away from the tower decreased them, how it was the radiation from the tower giving them rashes and such, perception is a thing.

    By having the lights be visible, it allowed the study to not just test radio sensitivity, it allowed them to test perception of radio sensitivity.

    The test essentially showed that the people were getting sick when they thought they were being bombarded with radio waves, not when they were actually being bombarded.

    A real test would not provide any misleading clues.

    They tested that as well. They had 4 different tests - Radio & lights, Radio & dark, No Radio &lights, No Radio & dark. Symptoms tracked with the status lights on the test device, not the radio waves.

    If people were sensitive, but also fooling themselves with the lights, more people would have shown something when the lights were dark but the radio was on.

    --
    I don't read AC A human right
  13. Re:What does Science have to say about this? by chihowa · · Score: 4, Informative

    You've described a "blind" study. "Double blind" means that the testers don't know which subject is in which group until after the study.

    --
    If you want a vision of the future, imagine a youtube comments section scrolling - forever.
  14. Re: What does Science have to say about this? by C0R1D4N · · Score: 3, Informative
    http://reason.com/archives/201...

    Falsehood 1: You can light your tap water on fire. Fox made this claim famous in the first Gasland movie when he showed a resident of Colorado striking a match as water came out of his tap; the natural gas dissolved in the water burst into flame. Yet the water was tested by the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, which reported to the resident: "There are no indications of any oil & gas related impacts to your well water." The agency concluded that the natural gas in his water supply was derived from natural sources—the water well penetrated several coal beds that had released the methane into the well.

  15. Re:What does Science have to say about this? by MrL0G1C · · Score: 4, Informative

    Are you not aware of the many orders of magnitude difference between WiFi and Microwave ovens.

    Microwave Oven typically 600+ Watts or 600,000mW

    Wifi Typically 5mW or 0.005 Watts

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    Waterfox - a Firefox fork with legacy extension support, security updates and better privacy by default.